PROCEEDINGS 


AT   THE 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


OF 


CONCORD    FIGHT 


April  19,  1875. 


CONCORD,  MASS. 

K 

PUBLISHED     BY    THE    TOWN. 
1876. 


DOLMAN  &  WHITE,  Printers, 

>y« 

Ubrary 


PREFACE. 


THE  committee  chosen  by  the  town  of  Concord  at  the  March  meet 
ing,  1874,  and  clothed  with  full  powers  to  prepare  for  and  carry  out  a 
centennial  celebration  of  Concord  Fight,  deeming  the  occasion  wor 
thy  of  a  more  complete  and  permanent  record  than  could  be  obtained 
in  the  columns  of  the  newspapers,  and  wishing  to  furnish  to  those 
who  were  attracted  to  Concord  by  the  national  importance  of  the  first 
Centennial  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  by  the  patriotic  memo 
ries  it  awakened,  an  opportunity  of  preserving  in  a  permanent  form  an 
official  history  of  our  ceremonies,  and  feeling  it  to  be  their  duty  also 
to  render  to  the  town  an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  they  exe 
cuted  their  trust,  delegated  to  the  undersigned  the  task  of  preparing 
and  publishing  such  an  account,  which  is  herewith  respectfully  sub 
mitted  as  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  Their 
financial  statement  appears  in  the  Town  Report  for  1875-6. 

The  Nineteenth  of  April,  1775,  has  always  been  regarded  by  the 
people  of  New  England  as  the  national  birthday  ;  and  its  fiftieth  and 
seventy-fifth  anniversaries  were  celebrated  at  Concord  by  the  towns 
of  Middlesex,  Essex,  and  Norfolk,  whose  men  shared  with  the  men  of 
our  town  the  dangers  and  glories  of  that  day. 

But  the  people  of  Concord  believed  that  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War  would  be  recognized  univer 
sally  as  of  national  interest,  and  that  their  preparations  for  the  cele 
bration  of  it  should  be  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  importance 
of  the  occasion. 

We  have  thought  it  best,  in  writing  this  report,  to  adhere  to  the 
chronological  order  of  events  ;  and  therefore  —  as  the  preparation  for 
the  Centennial  began  with  the  project  of  a  monument  to  be  placed 


'  880187 


6  PREFACE. 

where  Davis  and  Hosmer  fell,  and  Buttrick  gave  the  first  order  to 
fire  on  the  king's  troops  —  we  have  begun  with  a  brief  account  of  the 
Minute-man  and  its  origin. 

The  religious  services  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  April  18,  were 
held  in  the  Old  Meeting  House,  where  the  first  Provincial  Congress 
assembled.  As  these  services  were  memorial  in  their  character,  and 
were  attended  by  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  by  many  other 
honored  guests  of  the  town,  it  may  properly  be  said  that  the  com 
memoration  began  on  that  day. 

Although  the  ball  was  not  a  part  of  the  celebration  for  which  the 
Committee  considered  themselves  authorized  to  expend  the  money  of 
the  town,  yet  any  account  of  our  proceedings  would  be  sadly  incom 
plete,  that  should  omit  all  mention  of  that  brilliant  and  beautiful  scene. 
We  have,  therefore,  concluded  our  report  with  a  short  account  of  the 
ball. 

Appended  hereto  is  a  carefully  prepared  abstract  of  the  literature 
of  the  Nineteenth  of  April,  kindly  furnished  at  our  request  by  our 
townsman,  James  L.  Whitney,  the  assistant  superintendent  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library ;  including  a  heliotype  facsimile  of  the  famous 
Diary  of  Rev.  William  Emerson. 

We  have  used  our  best  endeavors  to  make  this  chronicle  of  a  day 
so  dear  to  us  a  complete  and  true  one.  Yet  we  are  conscious  that 
there  was  much  in  our  celebration  —  the  proud  and  tender  memories, 
the  sympathy,  the  spirit,  the  thanksgiving  that  moved  the  hearts  of 
our  people — of  too  fine  and  evanescent  a  quality  for  any  record,  how 
ever  vivid  or  faithful,  adequately  to  convey. 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  ^ 

EDWARD  W.  EMERSON,   v  for  the  Committee. 

CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT,  J 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGES. 

/.   THE  MINUTE-MAN  AND  THE  BRIDGE       .       .        .       11-17 
II.  THE  PREPARATIONS      . 21-44 

III.  SUNDAY  SERVICES .      47-60 

IV.  THE  PROCESSION 63-74 

V.  EXERCISES  IN  THE  ORATION  TENT     .       .       .       .77-119 

VI.  EXERCISES  IN  THE  DINNER  TENT      ....    123-156 
VII.   THE  JBALL 159 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE  .        .        .165 
APPENDIX 175 


THE  MINUTE-MAN  AND  THE  BRIDGE. 


THE  MINUTE-MAN  AND  THE  BRIDGE. 


To  the  People  of  Concord: 

IT  is  fit  that  a  public  record  of  Concord's  Centennial  Celebration 
of  the  Fight  at  the  North  Bridge  should  recognize  how  that  celebra 
tion  was  inspired  and  moulded  by  the  thought  of  one  man,  an  old 
citizen,  who  himself  passed  away  without  the  sight  of  that  fulfilment 
of  his  desire  in  which  his  townsmen  take  such  pride  to-day. 

A  picture  still  fresh  in  the  memory  of  almost  every  inhabitant  of 
Concord  is  the  bowed  form  and  wrinkled  face  of  EBENEZER 
HUBBARD. 

Living  in  the  house  where  he  boasted  that  his  grandfather  enter 
tained  Hancock  and  the  patriots  of  the  Continental  Congress  which 
met  in  the  old  meeting-house,  tilling  the  old  flat  fields,  or  walking  in 
the  stately  woods,  which  he  kept  almost  sacred  from  the  axe,  —  he 
remembered  with  pride  the  Middlesex  farmers,  who  took  the  dread 
responsibility  of  attacking  the  troops  of  Great  Britain. 

The  old  North  Bridge,  whose  planks  had  been  trodden  by  those 
men,  was  taken  down  when  he  was  ten  years  old ;  and  it  grieved  him 
that  it  should  be  only  a  tradition  to  the  younger  generations  of 
Concord,  and  that  no  stone  should  mark  the  spot  where  Buttrick  gave 
the  word  to  fire. 

At  the  state  muster,  in  1869,  Mr.  Hubbard  walked  to  the  camp, 
and  made  his  way  to  headquarters,  to  try  to  interest  Gen.  Butler  in 
his  favorite  scheme ;  for  his  hope  was  to  rouse,  in  some  way,  the  atten 
tion  of  Congress  to  the  importance  of  the  renewal  of  the  bridge,  and 
the  fitly  marking  the  spot  where  the  first  patriot  volley  was  fired. 
He  failed  entirely  in  this  interview,  bi^t  went  home,  probably  the  more 
resolved  to  do  his  part.  The  following  year,  one  October  morning, 
the  neighbors  found  him  sitting  in  his  chair,  dead. 

He  made  by  his  will  a  bequest  to  the  town  in  these  words  :  — 

"  I  order  my  executor  to  pay  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  towards 
building  a  monument  in  said  town  of  Concord,  on  the  spot  where  the  Ameri 
cans  fell,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  from  the  present  monument,  in  the 
battle  of  the  igth  of  April,  1775,  providing  my  said  executor  shall  ascertain 
that  said  monument  first  named  has  been  built,  or  sufficient  funds  have  been 


12  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

obtained  therefor,  within  five  years  after  my  decease  ;  but  in  case  my  executor 
shall  have  ascertained  that  said  first-named  monument  is  not  built,  nor  suffi 
cient  funds  obtained  for  that  purpose,  within  five  years  after  my  decease,  then 
I  order  my  executor  to  pay  over  to  Hancock,  N.H.,  said  sum  of  one  thou 
sand  dollars." 


Mr.  Hubbard  further  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  town  treasurer 
the  sum  of  six  hundred  dollars,  towards  the  expense  of  building  a 
bridge  over  the  river,  on  the  site  of  the  old  one. 

Stedman  Buttrick,  grandson  of  Major  John  Buttrick  who  com 
manded  the  American  force  at  the  bridge,  gave  a  deed  to  the  town  of 
about  one-quarter  of  an  acre  of  land,  in  his  meadow  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  river,  "at  the  butment  of  the  old  North  Bridge,"  "for  the  pur 
pose  of  erecting  a  Monument  there,  and  for  no  other  purpose,  and  on 
condition  that  the  grantee  shall  make  and  forever  maintain  a  fence 
around  the  same,  and  that  a  bridge  shall  be  constructed  across  the 
river,  from  the  easterly  side,  to  pass  to  the  above  premises,  and  with 
out  any  right  of  way  over  my  land." 

Mr.  Buttrick  also  died  (November,  1874)  without  seeing  the  com 
pletion  of  the  work  that  his  patriotic  gift  had  aided. 

At  the  March  meeting,  1872,  a  committee  was  chosen,  to  consider 
what  action  should  be  taken  by  the  town  in  relation  to  the  bequest 
of  Ebenezer  Hubbard.  It  consisted  of  the  following  gentlemen : 
John  S.  Keyes,  Chairman  ;  George  Heywood,  George  M.  Brooks,  John 
B.  Moore,  and  Addison  G.  Fay. 

At  the  meeting  in  March,  1873,  this  committee  reported  the  terms 
of  the  bequest  of  Mr.  Hubbard,  and  the  gift  of  Mr.  Buttrick,  and 
recommended  that  the  town  should  gratefully  accept  the  patriotic 
bequest  and  gift  of  its  citizens,  and  that  it  should  "  procure  a  statue 
of  a  Continental  Minute-man,  cut  in  granite,  and  erect  it  on  a  proper 
foundation,  on  the  American  side  of  the  river,"  with  the  opening 
stanza  of  the  poem  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  sung  at  the  dedication 
of  the  Battle  Monument  in  1837,  "  enduringly  engraven  for  an 
inscription  on  the  base  ;  "  also  "  that  a  suitable  bridge  be  constructed 
to  give  access  to  the  spot ; "  and,  finally,  "  that  the  work  be  completed 
and  dedicated  on  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  day,  with  such 
other  exercises  as  may  be  hereafter  determined." 

A  vote  of  the  town  was  passed  at  the  same  meeting,  authorizing 
the  same  committee  to  procure  designs  and  estimates  for  a  statue. 
Mr.  Fay  having  died,  Mr.  Henry  F.  Smith  was  appointed  on  the  com 
mittee  in  his  place. 


THE    MINUTE-MAN    AND    THE    BRIDGE.  13 

At  the  November  meeting,  1873,  a  small  plaster  model  of  a  minute- 
man,  executed  by  Mr.  Daniel  C.  French  of  Concord,  was  submitted  by 
the  committee,  and  the  town  voted  to  accept  the  design,  and  appro 
priated  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  towards  the  expense  of  pro 
curing  a  full-sized  model  to  be  made  by  him,  the  artist  generously 
leaving  all  question  of  compensation  for  his  design,  other  than  the 
mere  expense  of  construction,  to  the  free  will  of  the  town. 

Five  persons,  Messrs.  R.  W.  Emerson,  Frederic  Hudson,  George 
A.  King,  Andrew  J.  Harlow,  and  William  W.  Wilde,  were  added  to 
the  committee,  which,  thus  enlarged,  was  authorized  to  decide  on  the 
material  for  the  statue,  to  procure  a  suitable  base  and  carry  on  the 
work. 

Early  in  the  year  1874,  the  General  Court  passed  the  following  act, 
entitled,  "  An  Act  authorizing  the  Town  of  Concord  to  raise  Money 
for  a  Monument  and  for  its  Dedication." 

Be  it  enacted,  &*c. 

SECTION  i.  —  The  Town  of  Concord  is  authorized  to  raise  by  taxation, 
such  sums  of  money  as  may  be  needed  for  a  suitable  monument  at  the  "  Old 
North  Bridge,"  to  commemorate  the  events  of  the  nineteenth  day  of  April, 
seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-five,  and  for  an  appropriate  celebration  at  its 
dedication. 

SECT.  2.  —  This  Act  shall  take  effect  upon  its  passage. 
Approved  March  9,  1874. 

In  the  March  meeting,  1874,  the  town  appropriated  the  sum  of 
fifteen  hundred  dollars,  to  be  used  in  procuring  a  suitable  base  to  the 
statue  and  completing  the  work.  A  committee  of  thirty  citizens 
was  chosen  at  the  same  meeting  to  make  arrangements  for  a  fitting 
Centennial  Celebration  of  Concord  Fight. 

The  original  plan  for  a  granite  statue  was  abandoned  by  the  Monu 
ment  Committee,  and  bronze  was  selected  as  the  material  best  adapted 
to  Mr.  French's  design,  and  most  enduring  in  our  climate. 

Through  the  influence  and  energetic  action  of  the  Hon.  E.  R. 
Hoar,  our  Representative  in  the  Forty-third  Congress,  the  following 
act2  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  on  April  18,  and  the 
Senate,  April  20  (the  iQth  being  Sunday),  and  was  approved  by  the 
President,  April  22. 

1  Statute  1874,  c.  49. 

2  A  beautifully  illuminated  copy  of  this  act,  attested  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  was 
presented  by  him   to  Judge  Hoar,  and  given  to  the  Free  Public  Library  by  the  latter 
gentleman. 


14  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 

of  America,  in  Congress  assembled, 

That  the  Secretary  of  War  be,  and  is  hereby,  authorized  to  deliver  to  the 
municipal  authorities  of  Concord,  Massachusetts,  ten  pieces  of  condemned 
brass  cannon,  to  be  used  in  the  erection  of  a  monument  at  the  Old  North 
Bridge,  to  commemorate  the  first  repulse  of  the  troops  of  Great  Britain  in 
the  war  of  the  Revolution,  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  April,  seventeen  hun 
dred  and  seventy-five. 

J.  G.  ELAINE, 

Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

M.  H.  CARPENTER, 

President  of  Senate  pro  tempore. 
Approved  April  22,  1874. 

U.  S.  GRANT. 

The  cannon  were  sent  soon  after  to  the  Ames  Manufacturing 
Company  at  Chicopee,  Mass.,  and  the  model  early  in  the  autumn. 

The  committee  decided  to  reproduce,  in  its  essential  features,  the 
old  battle  bridge,  though  on  a  lighter  scale,  and  was  fortunately 
enabled  to  do  this  by  the  rude  old  wood  engraving  of  Concord  Fight, 
made  with  that  faithfulness  of  detail  which  characterizes  most  untu 
tored  art,  by  Earl  and  Doolittle,  two  members  of  Benedict  Arnold's 
Horse  Guards,  who  rode  up  from  the  camp  at  Cambridge  one  July 
day  in  1775  and  made  the  sketch  on  the  spot,  supplying  the  attack 
ing  farmers  and  retreating  red-coats  to  the  picture  from  the  stories 
told  them  by  the  sharers  in  the  fight.  This  picture  showed  a  plain 
wooden  bridge  spanning  the  river,  with  a  slight  arch,  supported  by 
a  few  rows  of  piles. 

Mr.  Reuben  N.  Rice  generously  undertook  to  add  some  decoration 
to  the  rigid  simplicity  of  the  old  model,  and*  obtained  a  plan  from  Mr. 
William  R.  Emerson  of  Boston,  in  which  the  place  of  the  rough  rail 
ing  of  "followers"  of  the  old  bridge  was  supplied  by  a  paling  of 
graceful  pattern,  made  of  cedars  with  the  bark  on  ;  and  two  rustic 
half-arbors  were  placed  on  the  middle  of  the  bridge,  projecting  over 
the  water,  with  seats  where  pilgrims  might  sit  and  watch  the  quiet 
river  brimming  its  meadows.  The  bridge  was  built  during  the  sum 
mer  and  autumn  according  to  this  plan. 

But  how  to  place  the  Minute-man  to  best  advantage  when  he 
came  ?  Many  forms  of  pedestal  were  suggested,  simple  and  elabo 
rate.  The  plan  which  pleased  the  committee  more  than  any 
other,  was  to  haul  to  the  spot  one  of  the  great  boulders  that  are  found 
in  Concord  fields,  and  thus  set  the  bronze  farmer  on  a  pedestal  of 


THE    MINUTE-MAN    AND    THE    BRIDGE.  I  5 

some  old  glacier's  carving,  merely  smoothing  a  place  on  the  front  to 
receive  the  inscription.  The  practical  difficulties  of  this  scheme  were 
found  insurmountable. 

In  the  oak  woods  on  the  edge  of  the  neighboring  town  of  Westford 
(whence,  on  the  battle  morning,  came  that  Lieutenant-Colonel  John 
Robinson,  who  marched,  at  Major  Buttrick's  request,  by  his  side 
down  the  hill  to  the  attack),  lay  a  rock  of  fine  white  granite,  out  of 
which,  thirty-nine  years  ago,  came  the  old  battle  monument.  From 
this  a  great  block  was  split  by  Mr.  John  Cole  of  that  town,  so  nearly 
rectangular  and  perfect  that  it  almost  tempted  the  Monument  Com 
mittee  to  place  it  under  the  statue  without  further  work  upon  it. 
This  was  brought  to  Concord  when  the  snow  fell.  Finally  a  plan, 
kindly  furnished  the  Committee  by  Mr.  J.  Elliot  Cabot  of  Brookline, 
by  which  they  could  use  this  stone,  was  adopted,  and  the  work 
executed  by  Mr.  Cole  during  the  winter. 

The  body  of  the  pedestal  is  one  block  seven  feet  high,  with  equal 
faces  four  feet  broad,  the  front  face  rough  pointed,  but  having  a  sunk 
panel,  fine  hammered,  across  the  middle  of  which,  in  incised  and 
bronzed  letters,  are  these  lines  of  Emerson  :  — 

BY  THE  RUDE  BRIDGE  THAT  ARCHED  THE  FLOOD 
THEIR  FLAG  TO  APRIL'S  BREEZE  UNFURLED, 

HERE  ONCE  THE  EMBATTLED  FARMERS  STOOD 
AND  FIRED  THE  SHOT  HEARD  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

The  rear  face  is  similar  to  the  front,  and  on  the  panel  in  high 
relief  the  inscription  :  — 

*     1775 

NINETEENTH 

•  OF'' ;' J. 

APRIL 


1875 

The  lateral  faces  of  the  pedestal  are  rough  hewn,  with  a  smooth 
hammered  margin  six  inches  and  a  half  wide.  This  main  block  is 
supported  by  a  base  projecting  six  inches  and  a  half,  and  nine  inches 
high,  resting  on  a  turfed  mound  three  feet  high. 


l6  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

The  whole  lot  given  by  Mr.  Buttrick  has  been  filled,  so  as  to  raise 
it  to  the  level  of  the  old  abutment,  and  above  the  spring  floods  of  the 
river,  and  its  edges  turfed,  while  a  sufficiently  broad  gravel  drive 
passes  round  the  monument.  A  willow  hedge  has  been  planted 
round 'the  grounds,  to  further  protect  the  abutment  from  the  floods. 
Where  the  statue  stands,  a  deep  pit  was  dug  and  filled  with  rubble 
for  a  firmer  foundation. 

The  site  itself  is  in  the  line  of  the  middle  of  the  bridge,  and  one 
hundred  and  ten  feet  from  its  western  end,  in  front  of  the  old  sprout 
ing  apple-stump,  that  tradition  says  was  the  spot  where  Captain 
Isaac  Davis  received  his  death-wound,  — "  the  burning  bush  where 
God  spake  for  His  people." 

In  March  the  pedestal  was  set  in  place,  and  under  it  a  hermetically 
sealed  copper  box  containing  — 

The  History  of  the  Monument,  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Monument  Committee. 
A  copy  of  Shattuck's  History  of  Concord. 

The  account  of  the  Fight,  from  the  Diary  of  Rev.  William  Emerson. 
A  Pamphlet,  giving  an  account  of  the  Celebration  in  1850. 

A  Pamphlet,  giving  an  account  of  the  Dedication  of  the  Soldier's  Monument  in  the 
Square,  April  19,  1867. 

The  Town  Report  for  1874. 

Photographs  of  the  Artist  and  of  the  Statue. 

Map  of  the  Village  in  1775. 

Map  of  Concord,  1855. 

Map  of  the  Centre  of  the  Town  in  1874. 

Coins,  Stamps,  Newspapers  of  the  Day,  Invitations  to  the  Celebration,  &c. 

During  the  first  days  of  April,  the  statue,  which  had  been  most 
successfully  cast  from  the  gun-metal,  arrived  from  Chicopee,  and  was 
set  upon  the  pedestal,  and  after  a  few  days  was  veiled  to  await  the 
formal  uncovering  on  the  anniversary  of  the  battle. 

It  represents  a  young  farmer,  one  of  the  minute-men  of  that  day, 
leaving  his  plough  in  the  furrow  on  the  alarm  of  the  approach  of  the 
regulars,  and  answering,  musket  in  hand,  the  call  to  arms ;  one  of 
those, 

'«  Whose  faith  and  truth 
On  war's  red  touchstone  rang  true  metal ; 
Who  ventured  life  and  love  and  youth 
For  the  great  prize  of  death  in  battle." 

There  is  nothing  hot  or  theatrical  in  the  movement,  which  is 
considered,  and  the  face  serious,  as  of  one  who  sees  all  the  doubt  and 
danger  from  the  first  and  yet  goes  quietly  on. 

The  figure  is  of  heroic  proportions,  being  seven  feet  high,  yet  has 


THE    MINUTE-MAN   AND    THE    BRIDGE.  I/ 

the  lightness  of  a  man  skilled  in  wood-craft  as  well  as  farm  labor. 
The  anatomy  and  poise  are  conscientiously  studied  from  nature ; 
and  even  the  long  waistcoat,  hanging  heavy  with  the  bullets  in  its 
pockets,  the  worn  gaiters  and  rude  accoutrements  show  faithful  work 
and  historical  accuracy.  It  has  been  noticed  that  the  statue  wins 
praise  alike  from  the  scholar  and  the  laborer,  the  cultivated  and 
the  untrained  taste. 

Mr.  French  is  only  twenty-five  years  old,  and  this  is  his  first  work 
of  importance.  The  town  cannot  fail  to  be  long  grateful  to  him  for 
the  good  work  he  has  done,  and  the  charm  he  has  added  to  its 
meadows. 


THE  PREPARATIONS. 


THE   PREPARATIONS. 


AFTER  the  appointment  of  the  Monument  Committee  and  the  accept 
ance  of  the  model  presented  with  their  first  report  at  the  March  meet 
ing  in  1873,  the  next  step  taken  by  the  town,  in  its  municipal  capacity, 
was  to  appoint  a  Committee  of  Arrangements,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
prepare  a  suitable  celebration  at  the  dedication  of  the  statue,  on  the 
I  Qth  of  April,  1875. 

The  necessary  authority  to  raise  money  for  the  purpose  by  taxation 
had  been  conferred  by  the  Legislature  ;  and  at  the  annual  town  meet 
ing  held  March  30,  1874,  it  was  voted, 

"That  a  committee  iof  thirty  be  chosen  as  a  Committee  of  Arrangements 
for  the  celebration  of  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  Concord  Fight,  and 
that  the  Committee  be  authorized  to  expend  a  sum  not  exceeding  five  thou 
sand  dollars  for  the  purpose." 

Such  a  committee  was  then  chosen,  consisting  of  the  following 
persons  ;  viz.,  — 

GEORGE  KEYES,     SAMUEL  HOAR,      FREDERIC  HUDSON, 

EDWARD  C.  DAMON,     REUBEN  N.  RICE, 

ALFRED   B.  C.  DAKIN, 

JOSEPH  D.  BROWN,     RICHARD  F.  BARRETT,     ELIJAH  WOOD, 

SAMUEL  W.  BROWN,      HUMPHREY  H.  BUTTRICK, 

JAMES  C.  MELVIN, 

LEVI  MILES,     WILLIAM  BUTTRICK,      WILLIAM  F.  HURD, 

SIDNEY  J.  BARRETT,       EDWIN  WHEELER, 

HENRY  L.  SHATTUCK, 

JAMES  D.  WRIGHT,     LEWIS  FLINT,     JOSEPH  DERBY,  JUN., 

WILLIAM  H.  HUNT,     EDWARD  W.  EMERSON, 

HENRY  J.  WALCOTT, 

CHARLES  THOMPSON,     ALBERT  E.  WOOD,     ANDREW  J.  HARLOW, 

CHARLES  D.'TUTTLE,     MARCELLUS   HOUGHTON, 

SYLVESTER   LOVEJOY. 


22  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Messrs.  Hudson,  Rice,  Miles,  and  Hurd  having  declined  to  serve, 
the  vacancies  thus  occasioned  were  rilled  by  the  committee,  subject 
to  the  ratification  of  the  town,  by  the  election  of 

RICHARD  BARRETT,      GEORGE  P.  HOW,      CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT, 

JAMES  B.  WOOD. 

This  action  was  approved  and  ratified  by  the  town  at  the  following 
March  meeting.1 

The  Committee  of  Arrangements  held  its  first  meeting  at  the 
Town  Hall  on  Thursday,  June  25,  and  organized  with  the  choice 
of  the  following  officers:  George  Keyes,  Chairman;  Samuel  Hoar, 
Secretary ;  and  Henry  J.  Walcott,  Treasurer.  Subsequently,  the  fol 
lowing  sub-committees  were  chosen  by  the  committee  of  thirty ; 
viz.,  — 

On  General  Invitations. 
E.  R.  HOAR,      R.  W.  EMERSON,      GEORGE  HEYWOOD. 

On  the  Oration. 
CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT,     EDWARD  C.  DAMON,     SAMUEL  HOAR. 

On  the  Dinner. 

JOSEPH  D.  BROWN,     CHARLES  THOMPSON,      EDWARD  W.  EMERSON, 
JAMES  C.  MELVIN,      CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT. 

To  invite  Participating  Towns. 

GEORGE  KEYES,       WILLIAM  H.  HUNT,      JOSEPH  D.  BROWN, 

E.  C.  DAMON,     H.  J.  WALCOTT,     CHARLES  THOMPSON, 

HENRY  L.  SHATTUCK. 

On  Music. 
SAMUEL  W.  BROWN,      A.  J.  HARLOW,      R.  F.  BARRETT. 

i  At  the  annual  town  meeting,  held  March  29,  1875,  the  following  votes  were  passed  :  — 

"  Voted,  That  the  action  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  Centennial  Celebra 
tion  of  Concord  Fight,  in  filling  vacancies  in  their  number,  be  approved  and  ratified. 

"  Voted,  That  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  be  authorized  to  expend  a  sum  not 
exceeding  five  thousand  dollars,  in  addition  to  the  sums  already  authorized. 

"  Voted,  That  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  be  raised  by  taxation  to  defray  the  ex 
penses  of  the  Centennial  Celebration,  and  that  the  treasurer  be  authorized  to  borrow  such 
further  sum,  not  exceeding  fifty-five  hundred  dollars,  as  may  be  needed  for  that  purpose." 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  23 

On  the  Press. 

W.  W.  WHEILDON,      F.  B.  SANBORN,      FREDERIC  HUDSON, 
GEORGE  TOLMAN. 

On  Military. 

RICHARD  BARRETT,      GEORGE  P.  HOW,      A.  B.  C.  DAKIN, 
EDWIN  WHEELER,      JOSEPH  DERBY,  JUN. 

On  Decorations. 

JAMES  C.  MELVIN,      H.  L.  SHATTUCK,      E.  W.  EMERSON,      A.  E.  WOOD, 

WILLIAM  BUTTRICK,      LEWIS  FLINT,      CHARLES  THOMPSON, 

SYLVESTER  LOVEJOY. 

On  the  Ball. 

H.  J.  WALCOTT,      H.    H.  BUTTRICK,      R.  F.    BARRETT,      S.   J.    BARRETT, 

J.  D.  WRIGHT,      S.  W.  BROWN,      SAMUEL  HOAR,      C.  D.  TUTTLE, 

J.  D.  BROWN,      GEORGE  P.  HOW,      JAMES  B.  WOOD. 

On  Transportation. 

GEORGE  KEYES,      A.  J.  HARLOW,      ELIJAH  WOOD,      J.  D.  BROWN, 
E.  C.  DAMON,      M.  HOUGHTON. 

On  Reception  of  Guests. 

GEORGE  M.  BROOKS,      R.  W.  EMERSON,      GEORGE  HEYWOOD, 

FREDERIC  HUDSON,      H.  F.  SMITH,      JOHN  S.  KEYES, 

STEDMAN  BUTTRICK,      JOHN  B.  MOORE, 

W.  W.  WILDE,     GEORGE  A.  KING. 

Executive  Committee* 

'GEORGE  KEYES        RICHARD   BARRETT,       SAMUEL    HOAR, 
CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT,      JAMES  C.  MELVIN. 

The  four  committees  first  chosen  were  called  "joint  committees  to 
act  with  similar  committees  from  Lexington  ;  "  but  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  October  17,  1874,  a  joint  celebration 
having  proved  to  be  impracticable,  their  character  was  changed  to 
that  of  "  committees  empowered  to  act  in  the  Concord  celebration  for 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  chosen." 


24  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

The  first  proposition  for  a  joint  celebration  of  the  events  of  the 
of  April,  1775,  by  the  towns  of  Concord  and  Lexington,  was  made  in 
a  letter  from  a  committee  chosen  by  the  latter  town,  addressed  to  the 
selectmen  of  Concord,  and  dated  November  12,  I873.1  This  com 
munication  solicited  the  good  services  of  our  selectmen  in  awaken 
ing  an  interest  among  the  people  of  our  town  ;  so  that,  before  any 
specific  arrangements  were  made,  we  might  be  enabled  to  participate 
with  them  in  preparing  for  a  union  celebration  at  Lexington. 

Our  selectmen  sent  a  reply,  saying,  in  effect,  that  our  town  had 
•  already  chosen  a  committee,  eight  months  before  the  receipt  of  the 
letter  from  -Lexington,  to  procure  a  model  for  a  statue  of  a  minute- 
man  of  '75,  to  be  dedicated  on  the  centennial  anniversary  ;  that  the 
committee  had  reported  at  the  last  town  meeting,  which  took  place 
before  the  letter  was  received  from  Lexington  ;  and  that  the  work  on 
the  statue  was  already  under  way.2 

This  previous  action  of  our  town  rendered  any  other  action  by  the 
selectmen  impossible  without  further  proceedings  in  town  meeting ; 
and  no  further  propositions  were  made  looking  to  a  union  celebration  at 
Lexington,  previous  events  having  made  it  certain  that  the  people  of 
Concord  desired  and  expected  to  have  in  their  own  town  a  celebration 
which  should  appropriately  commemorate  the  deeds  of  the  men  whom 
they  delight  to  honor. 

As  soon  as  it  clearly  appeared  that  each  of  the  towns  had  planned 
a  celebration  for  itself,  it  was  conceived  that  it  might  be  practicable 
to  agree  upon  such  a  division  of  the  day,  with  a  programme  to  be  car 
ried  out  in  both  towns,  as  should  bring  about  a  union  celebration  of 
a  day  and  events  in  which  they  were  jointly  interested.  But,  after 
much  negotiation,  it  was  found  that  no  satisfactory  arrangement  of 
time  could  be  agreed  upon  and  carried  out ;  and,  therefore,  the  idea 
was  abandoned. 

However  much  this  result  may  have  been  regretted  at  the  time,  the 
event  proved  how  disastrous  would  have  been  any  attempt  to  carry 
out  one  programme  including  exercises  in  both  towns. 

From  and  after  October  17,  1874,  the  single  purpose  of  this  Com 
mittee  was  to  prepare  a  celebration  which  should  be  in  accordance  with 
the  ideas  of  the  people  of  Concord  and  in  keeping  with  the  magnitude 
of  the  occasion  and  the  high  official  position  of  the  guests  who  were 
expected  to  be  present.  The  several  sub-committees  met  frequently, 
and  regularly  reported  progress  to  the  general  committee.  The  work 
was  continually  growing  under  their  hands,  as  the  people  of  the  state 

1  See  Appendix,  A.  z  See  Appendix.  B. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  25 

and  nation  came  more  and  more  to  realize  the  importance  of  the 
approaching  anniversary. 

Special  invitations  were  sent  to  the  President  and  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States,  and  members  of  the  Cabinet,  the  United  States 
Senators  and  Representatives  from  New  England,  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the  Governors  of  the  thirteen 
original  states  of  the  Union  and  their  subdivisions,  the  Council  and 
Legislature  and  Judiciary  of  Massachusetts,  the  President  and 
Fellows  and  the  Faculty  of  Harvard  University,  the  Society  of  the 
Cincinnati,  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company,  the  Bunker 
Hill  Monument  Association,  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
the  New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Society,  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  and  many  distinguished  individuals. 

It  was  planned  that  the  governor  of  each  New  England  state  should 
appear  in  the  procession  escorted  by  the  representative  military  organ 
ization  of  his  state,  as  follows :  The  Governor  of  Massachusetts  by 
the  Newburyport  Veteran  Artillery  Association,  of  Newburyport ; 1 
the  Governor  of  Maine  by  the  Portland  Mechanic  Blues,  of  Portland  ; 
the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  by  the  Amoskeag  Veterans,  of 
Manchester  ;  the  Governor  of  Vermont  by  the  Ransom  Guards,  of 
St.  Albans  ;  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  by  the  First  Light  In 
fantry  Veteran  Association,  of  Providence  ;  the  Governor  of  Connect 
icut  by  the  Putnam  Phalanx,  of  Hartford. 

General  invitations  were  extended  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns 
and  cities  that  furnished  men  who  actually  bore  arms  in  Concord  on 
the  i gth  of  April,  1775,  or  whose  men  participated  in  the  events  of 
the  day  elsewhere. 

Those  of  the  first-named  class  were  Acton,  Bedford,  Billerica,  Car 
lisle,  Chelmsford,  Lincoln,  Littleton,  Stow,  Sudbury,  and  Westford. 

The  second  and  larger  class  consisted  of  Arlington,  Belmont,  Beverly, 
Boston  [Charlestown  and  Roxbury],  Boxborough,  Brookline,  Burling 
ton,  Cambridge,  Danvers,  Dedham,  Everett,  Framingham,  Lexington, 
Lowell,  Lynn,  Lynnfield,  Maynard,  Medford,  Melrose,  Needham, 
Newton,  Norwood,  Peabody,  Pepperell,  Reading,  Salem,  Somerville, 
Topsfield,  Wakefield,  Waltham,  Watertown,  Way  land,  Weston,  Win 
chester,  and  Woburn.2 

1  In  point  of  fact,  the  Newburyport  Veterans  acted  as  escort  to  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  the  Independent  Corps  of  Cadets  having  been  ordered  out  to  serve  as 
escort  to  the  Governor  and  Council. 

'2  Probably  the  towns  of  Marlborough  and  Stoneham  should  have  been  included  ;  but 
their  claims  were  not  called  to  the  attention  of  the  committee  until  after  the  celebration. 


26  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

In  addition  to  the  invitations  which  were  intended  to  include  all  the 
citizens  of  the  towns  named,  a  card  was  also  sent  to  the  town  clerk 
of  each  of  those  towns,  inviting  a  delegation,  consisting  of  the  town 
officers  and  settled  clergymen,  to  attend  as  the  guests  of  the  town 
of  Concord.  In  the  cities,  this  latter  invitation  was  to  the  mayor  and 
aldermen  or  to  the  mayor  and  a  committee  of  the  city  government. 

The  form  of  invitation  to  the  guests  of  the  town  was  engraved  on 
steel,  was  adorned  by  a  heliotype  of  the  "  Minute-man,"  1  and  read  as 
follows  :  — 

1775.  CONCORD    FIGHT.  1875. 

April  ityh,  1775. 

To 

ir,—  The   Inhabitants 


of  the   town   of   Concord,    Massachusetts,    cordially   invile 

to  be  present  as  their  guest  at  Concord,  on  the  Nineteenth  of  April, 
1875,  and  to  join  with  them  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniver 
sary  of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

E.  R.  HOAR, 


'00,     j 


Committee 
R.  W.  EMERSON,        >      f  .     .,   .. 

(    of  Invitation. 
GEORGE  HEY  WOOD,        J 


Knowledge  of  our  approaching  festival  was  still  more  widely  spread 
by  a  notice,  which  was  prepared  and  signed  by  the  whole  Committee 
of  Arrangements,  and  was  as  follows  :  — 

1775.  CONCORD   FIGHT.  1875. 


DEAR  SIR  : 

The  town  of  Concord,  Massachusetts,  purposes  to  celebrate  the  Centen-1 
nial  Anniversary  of  Concord  Fight  on  the  Nineteenth  of  April,  1875,  in  a 
manner  appropriate  to  the  importance  of  that  day  which  "  made  conciliation 
impossible  and  independence  certain."  The  exercises  will  consist  of  an  ora 
tion  by  George  William  Curtis,  Esq.,  of  New  York  ;  a  grand  military  and 
civic  procession  to  the  site  of  the  "  Old  North  Bridge  ;"  the  unveiling  and 
dedication  of  a  bronze  statue  of  a  Minute-Man  on  the  spot  where  Davis  and 

1  This  heliotype,  taken  from  the  clay  model  before  casting,  precedes  this  part  of  our 
report. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  2/ 

Hosmer  fell,  and  where  was  "  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world  ;  "  a  pub 
lic  dinner,  with  toasts  and  speeches,  and  a  grand  ball  in  the  evening. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet  ;  the  Governor,  Legis 
lature  and  Judiciary  of  Massachusetts  ;  the  Governors  of  each  of  the  New 
England  States,  and  many  other  distinguished  men  are  expected  to  be 
present  as  the  guests  of  the  town. 

The  people  of  Acton,  Bedford,  Beverly,  Billerica,  Brookline,  Cambridge, 
Charlestown,  Chelmsford,  Danvers,  Dedham,  Framingham,  Lexington,  Lynn, 
Medford,  Needham,  Newton,  Roxbury,  Salem,  Stow,  Sudbury,  Watertown, 
and  Woburn,  have  been  invited  to  participate  in  the  celebration,  as  their 
fathers  did  in  the  struggle  for  liberty. 

The  town  of  Concord  hopes  that  all  those  who  are  connected  with  her  by 
descent  or  affection  will  join  with  her  in  this  interesting  commemoration. 

Very  truly  yours, 
CONCORD,  MASS.,  January,  1875. 

This  was  printed  in  most  of  the  New  York  and  New  England 
papers,  and  was  sent  by  mail  in  all  directions.  The  object  of  this 
publication  was  to  inform  the  descendants  of  Concord  people,  scat 
tered  all  over  the  country,  of  the  preparations  that  were  being  made, 
and  of  the  desire  of  our  citizens  that  all  who  loved  the  old  town 
should  be  present  on  this  memorable  occasion.  This  notice  was 
widely  circulated,  and,  so  far  as  your  committee  are  able  to  judge, 
had  the  desired  effect. 

From  the  beginning  your  Committee  felt  that  it  was  the  earnest 
desire  of  every  citizen  of  Concord  that  the  town  of  Acton,  with  its 
glorious  memories  of  the  day  we  were  about  to  celebrate,  should  be 
considered  as  a  guest  entitled  to  peculiar  honor.  Accordingly,  in 
addition  to  the  invitations  already  described,  which  were  sent  to  other 
towns  as  well,  a  special  invitation  was  extended  to  the  people  of  Acton 
and  their  company  of  minute-men.  The  Executive  Committee  also 
sent  the  following  letter,  which  was  read  at  a  special  town  meeting  in 
Acton  :  — 

CONCORD,  Jan.  9,  1875. 
To  THE  SELECTMEN  OF  ACTON. 

Gentlemen,  —  The  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  Centennial  Celebra 
tion  of  Concord  Fight,  chosen  by  the  town  of  Concord,  desire  the  co 
operation  of  the  town  of  Acton  in  the  approaching  celebration,  April  19, 


Formal  invitations  have  been  sent  to  all  the  towns  whose  men  participated 
in  the  first  armed  struggle  for  liberty,  to  join  with  Concord  in  the  proper 
celebration  of  the  day,  and  you  have  undoubtedly  received  yours  ;  but  it 


28  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

seems  to  this  committee,  and  it  is  the  desire  of  the  town  of  Concord,  that 
the  town  of  Acton  should  receive  something  more  than  a  formal  invitation. 

Davis  and  Hosmer,  men  of  Acton,  were  the  first  martyrs  to  organized 
resistance  to  the  British  crown  ;  and  on  the  spot  where  they  fell  it  is  proposed 
to  erect  an  emblematical  statue  of  a  minute-man,  and  to  dedicate  it  with 
appropriate  ceremonies.  At  its  dedication  the  citizens  of  Acton  should  have 
a  prominent  part 

As  Acton  joined  with  Concord  in  that  famous  fight ;  as  Acton  joined  with 
Concord  in  1825,  and  again  in  1850,  in  celebrating  their  common  anniversary  ; 
as  Concord  joined  with  Acton  at  the  dedication  of  your  monument  in  1851, — 
so  we  hope  that  Acton  will  now  join  with  Concord,  and  make  a  commemora 
tion  that  shall  of  itself  be  memorable. 

We  trust,  therefore,  that  you,  or  some  committee  on  the  part  of  your  town, 
will  confer  with  us  as  soon  as  practicable  with  reference  to  the  arrangements 
for  the  forthcoming  celebration. 

We  arc,  gentlemen,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servants, 

GEORGE  KEYES, 

RICHARD  BARRETT, 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  For  the  Concord 


CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT, 
JAMES  C.  MELVIN, 


Committee  of  Arrangements. 


At  the  same  meeting,  the  people  of  Acton  accepted  our  invitation 
and  passed  the  following  resolution  :  — 

Whereas,  The  nineteenth  day  of  April  next  will  be  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  Concord  Fight  and  the  Battle  of  Lexington,  in  the  former  of 
which  engagements  the  men  of  Acton  had  an  active  and  most  honorable 
part,  Capt.  Isaac  Davis  and  private  Abner  Hosmer  falling  in  the  former 
engagement,  and  private  James  Hayward  at  Lexington  on  the  retreat,  we, 
the  citizens  of  Acton,  in  town  meeting  assembled,  deem  it  due  to  the  mem 
ory  of  our  patriotic  dead,  and  to  our  own  sense  of  obligation  to  them  for 
what  they  did  for  us,  to  celebrate  the  day,  as  a  town,  in  some  appropriate 
manner;  and 

Whereas,  The  towns  of  Concord  and  Lexington  have  both,  through  their 
committees,  cordially  invited  us  to  join  them  in  celebrating  the  day  in  their 
respective  towns,  a  courtesy  that  we  fully  recognize  ;  yet,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  at  Concord  that  the  Acton  company  was  more  especially  engaged  and 
distinguished,  and  as  a  part  of  the  celebration  of  the  day  in  Concord  is  to 
consist  in  the  dedication  of  a  monument  to  be  erected  upon  the  spot  where 
Davis  and  Hosmer  fell,  an  act  of  justice  to  them  and  their  co-patriots  which 
we  greatly  appreciate  :  therefore 

Resolved,  That,  while  we  would  have  gladly  cooperated  with  both  of  those 
towns  in  the  observance  of  the  day,  we  feel  it  our  more  especial  duty,  and 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  2Q 

we  do  hereby  cordially  accept  the  invitation  of  the  town  of  Concord,  to  join 
them  in  celebrating  the  coming  i9th  of  April,  1875  ;    and 

Voted,  That  a  committee  of  ten  be  chosen  to  confer  with  the  town  of 
Concord  through  their  committee,  in  reference  to  said  celebration,  and  that 
said  committee  have  power  and  be  instructed  in  behalf  of  the  town  of  Acton 
to  make  all  necessary  arrangements  for  the  proper  celebration  of  that  day. 

In  the  spirit  of  the  above  resolution,  the  Acton  people  attended  in 
large  numbers,  and  with  a  fine  looking  body  of  minute-men  dressed 
in  uniform. 

In  issuing  invitations,  whether  to  the  national  and  state  officials,  to 
towns,  associations,  or  individuals,  it  was  borne  in  mind  that  our  anni 
versary  would  not  only  have  strong  attractions  for  the  people  of 
Concord  and  of  Massachusetts,  but  would  be  national.  It  is  hardly  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  people  of  the  entire  country  viewed  with 
deep  interest  the  preparations  which  were  being  made  by  our  town 
properly  to  commemorate  the  centennial  recurrence  of  the  day  on 
which  the  nation  was  born,  and  to  the  issues  of  which  we  all  owe  so 
much  of  our  happiness  and  prosperity  as  free  American  citizens. 

At  an  early  day,  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  several 
members  of  his  Cabinet  expressed  their  interest  in  the  preparations, 
and  their  desire  and  intention  to  be  present  in  Concord  on  the  iQth. 

The  following  passage  occurs  in  the  Inaugural  Address  of  Gov.  Gas- 
ton  to  the  Legislature :  — 

"  I  take  pleasure  in  communicating  to  you  an  invitation  from  the  inhab 
itants  of  the  town  of  Concord  to  the  two  branches  of  the  General  Court,  to 
be  present  as  the  guests  of  the  town  on  the  igth  of  April  next,  and  take  part 
in  a  fitting  commemoration  of  the  events  which  make  the  day  famous.  A 
similar  invitation  from  Concord  was  accepted  by  your  predecessors  twenty- 
five  years  ago ;  and  I  commend  this  invitation  to  your  favorable  considera 
tion." 

Subsequently  our  invitation  was  accepted  by  both  branches  of  the 
General  Court,  and  a  joint  special  committee1  was  appointed  to  confer 
with  the  Governor  as  to  the  arrangements  for  the  attendance  of  the 
Legislature. 

An  order  was  adopted  April  5,  authorizing  this  committee  of  the 
Legislature  to  extend  the  hospitalities  of  the  state  to  the  President, 
Vice-President,  and  members  of  the  Cabinet;  and  to  make  all  such 

1  This  committee  consisted  of  Messrs.  Joseph  A.  Harvvood  of  Littleton,  and  Francis 
E  Ison  of  Hadley,  on  the  part  of  the  Senate;  and  Moses  Williams,  jun.,  of  Brookline, 
William  E.  Blunt  of  Haverhill,  Dexter  A.  Tompkins  of  Boston,  Thomas  F.  Fitzgerald  of 
Boston,  and  Isaac  T.  Burr  of  Newton,  on  the  part  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 


30  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

arrangements  as  they  might  deem  necessary  and  proper  for  the  pur 
pose  of  receiving  and  providing  for  their  guests. 

After  conferring  with  the  President,  and  with  the  Governor  and 
Council,  the  programme  agreed  upon  by  the  joint  special  committee 
was  as  follows  :  — 

4<  That  the  Legislature,  together  with  the  Governor  and  Council,  and 
invited  guests  of  the  Commonwealth,  proceed  to  Concord  on  Monday 
the  iQth  of  April,  for  the  purpose  of  joining  there  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  with  him  attending  the  centennial  exercises  at 
Concord,  until  the  hour  of  one  o'clock,  P.M.  ;  and  that,  at  that  hour, 
the  Legislature,  and  Governor  and  Council,  with  the  guests  of  the 
Commonwealth,  proceed  promptly  to  Lexington,  for  the  purpose  of 
attending  the  centennial  exercises  of  that  town  during  the  remain 
der  of  the  day."1  This  order  of  proceedings  was  determined  upon, 
April  6,  and  was  adhered  to  as  strictly  as  the  crowds  and  the  ir 
regularity  of  trains  would  allow.  The  President  and  his  Cabinet  had 
previously  accepted  an  invitation  to  come  to  Concord  on  the  night 
of  Saturday  the  i/th,  and  become  the  guests  of  Judge  Hoar  until 
Monday  morning,  after  which  time  they  would  be  the  guests  of  the 
town  during  the  forenoon,  and  again  in  the  evening.2 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  our  celebration  was  to  be  a  national  one, 
an  enormous  quantity  of  flags  and  uncut  bunting  was  despatched  to 
Concord  from  the  navy  yards  at  Portsmouth,  Boston,  New  York,  and 
Washington,  to  be  used  by  the  committee  in  decorating  the  streets, 
tents,  and  buildings  in  the  town.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  detailed 
Lieut.  Commander  Henry  H.  Gorringe  with  orders  to  take  charge  of 
the  flags,  and  render  any  assistance  in  his  power. 

It  is  due  the  department,  as  well  as  to  Lieut.  Commander  Gorringe, 
to  say  that  the  Committee  feel  under  the  greatest  obligations  to  both. 
We  cannot  be  too  grateful  for  this  generous  loan  of  decorating  mate 
rial,  or  praise  too  highly  the  efficient  manner  in  which  the  directions 
of  the  Secretary  were  carried  out  by  the  officer  in  charge.3 

1  Report  of  committee  given  to  the  press,  April  7,  and  signed  by  Messrs.  Harwood  and 
Williams. 

2  It  was  one  of  the  unfortunate  occurrences  of  the  day,  that,  on  account  of  the  great 
crowds,  and  the  unavoidable  delay  occasioned  by  them,  the  President  was  not  met  at  Lex 
ington  by  the  carriage  which  was  sent  for  him  from  Concord  at  his  request ;  his  plan  hav 
ing  been  to  return  to  Concord,  and  attend  the  ball  in  the  evening. 

3  Exclusive  of  rags  and  scraps  of  bunting  that  were  not  used,  and  not  counting  any  of 
the  nags  and  bunting  from  the  Boston  yard,  we  had  the  use  of  6,769  flags  belonging  to  the 
Government,  the  invoice  price  of  which,  as  appears  by  the  official  records,  was  $38,704  57. 
The  Boston  yard  supplied  a  large  additional    number  of   flags,   and   a  large   quantity  of 
uncut  bunting. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  31 

The  Agricultural  Hall,  the  tents  for  the  oration  and  dinner,  the 
public  buildings,  the  liberty-pole,  and  the  principal  streets,  were 
decorated  under  the  direction  of  the  sub-committee  chosen  for  the 
purpose.  They  employed  Messrs.  Lamprell  and  Marble,  of  Boston, 
to  see  that  the  work  was  properly  done ;  and  the  results  attained  by 
the  decorators  were  perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  Committee,  and,  it  is 
believed,  to  the  people  of  the  town. 

Many  private  buildings  were  appropriately  decorated  ;  but,  as  they 
did  not  come  properly  within  the  province  of  the  committee,  it  is  not 
attempted,  in  this  place,  to  give  a  description  of  the  beautiful  masses 
and  combinations  of  color  that  made  the  whole  town  resplendent  on 
this  gala  day. 

At  the  request  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  the  Marine  Band 
of  Washington  was  ordered  to  Concord  to  take  part  in  our  proces 
sion,  on  the  sole  condition  that  the  town  should  entertain  its  mem 
bers  while  they  remained  in  Concord,  without  expense  to  the  depart 
ment.  It  was  considered  very  fitting  that  the  highest  officials  of  the 
nation  should  be  accompanied  in  the  procession  by  this  celebrated 
band  of  musicians,  regularly  enlisted  into  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  with  our  own  Concord  Artillery  as  military  escort.  The 
band  also  rendered  valuable  assistance  at  the  promenade  concert  in 
the  evening. 

At  a  meeting  held  November  7,  1874,  the  Executive  Committee  was 
instructed  to  report  at  the  next  meeting  "  a  programme  for  the  whole 
celebration  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  Concord  Fight." 

After  mature  deliberation,  it  was  finally  settled  that  the  day 
should  begin  with  the  formation  of  the  procession,  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  station  ;  that  the  procession 
should  march  through  Main,  Walden,  and  Lexington  Streets,  to  the 
Square,  and,  after  leaving  the  Square,  up  Monument  Street,  pass  the 
two  monuments  and  the  bridge,  and  enter  upon  the  field  of  Mr. 
George  Keyes,  the  use  of  which  was  tendered  for  the  occasion  by 
the  owner. 

Here,  on  the  spot  where  the  Provincial  troops  made  their  final  form 
ation  and  deliberately  resolved  to  dislodge  the  regulars  from  the 
bridge,  a  tent  was  to  be  erected  for  the  oration  and  the  exercises 
in  dedication  of  the  monument,  and  as  near  to  it  as  the  height  of 
the  river  and  the  conformation  of  the  ground  would  permit,  another 
and  larger  tent  for  the  dinner. 

The  success  of  the  day  depended   upon   the   weather  more  than 


32  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

any  one  was  willing  to  acknowledge  ;  and  this  fact  caused  most  of  the 
difficulty  in  arranging  the  route  of  the  procession.  The  spring  was 
very  late,  and  the  weather  cold.  Ten  days  before  the  celebration,  the 
knoll  on  which  the  "  Minute-man  "  stands  was  entirely  surrounded  by 
water,  and  was  accessible  only  by  the  new  bridge. 

If  we  had  been  met  by  so  unfavorable  a  combination  of  circum 
stances  on  the  iQth,  the  procession  would  have  been  unable  to  pass 
the  new  monument,  or,  indeed,  to  approach  it  nearer  than  within 
two  hundred  feet ;  and  the  line  of  march  would  have  been,  of  neces 
sity,  different  in  many  respects. 

Thus  the  Committee  and  the  Chief  Marshal  were  obliged  to  con 
template  the  possibility  of  material  alterations  in  the  programme, 
alterations  which  it  might  be  necessary  to  make  when  there  was  no 
opportunity  for  deliberation,  and  when  prompt  action  would  be  called 
for. 

On  the  1 3th,  three  inches  of  snow  fell  ;  and,  as  the  dinner  tent 
was  to  be  pitched  the  following  day,  it  became  necessary  to  clear  the 
ground.  By  the  accommodation  of  the  road  commissioners,  the  men 
and  teams  employed  by  the  town  to  work  on  the  roads  were  set  to 
work  removing  the  snow  from  the  ground  that  was  to  be  occupied  by 
the  tents  ;  and  the  sun  came  out  bright  and  warm  to  assist  by 
drying  up  the  ground  after  the  removal  of  the  snow. 

It  was  well  that  the  spot  selected  for  the  tents  was  sheltered  from 
the  north  winds  by  the  hill ;  for,  without  that  friendly  protection,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  such  enormous  masses  of  canvas  to 
withstand  the  blasts  with  which  they  were  visited.  As  it  was,  both 
tents  were  partially  lowered  several  times  after  they  were  first  erected, 
in  order  to  keep  them  from  being  blown  down. 

It  was  determined  beforehand  that  the  march  around  the  old  mill- 
pond  should  be  omitted,  if  the  weather  or  unavoidable  delays  should 
render  it  necessary  to  do  so,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  tents  at  the 
appointed  time.  The  actual  route  of  the  procession  was  thus  short 
ened  on  account  of  unavoidable  delays  in  formation  and  the  embar 
rassment  occasioned  by  the  great  crowds  that  blocked  the  streets 
•along  the  line  of  march. 

In  addition  to  the  other  preparations,  at  the  various  points  of  his 
torical  interest,  and  upon  the  buildings  now  standing  that  were 
witnesses  of  the  stirring  events  of  the  igth  of  April,  were  placed 
descriptive  signs.  These  were  the  work  of  Messrs.  Edward  G. 
Reynolds  and  Charles  S.  Richardson,  acting  under  the  direction  of  the 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  33 

Committee  on  Decorations.  The  signs  were  painted  on  narrow  strips 
of  board  in  large,  legible,  black  letters,  in  order  that  those  who  ran 
might  read. 

We*  give,  for  the  benefit  of  future  centennial  and  millennial  commit 
tees,  a  list  of  the  inscriptions,  with  a  brief  description  of  the  places 
so  designated. 

HOUSE  OF  ADJUTANT  JOS.   HOSMER,   1775. 

House  beyond  the  Old  South  Bridge  and  Fitchburg  Railroad 
crossing,  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  Lydia  P.  Hosmer  and  Cyrus  Hosmer. 

OLD  SOUTH    BRIDGE. 
BRITISH  COMPANY  STATIONED  HERE  19TH  OF  APRIL,  1775. 

Wooden  bridge  near  Fitchburg  Railroad,  and  house  of  Elijah  Wood. 

OLD  BLOCK  HOUSE,  BUILT  I654. 

House  just  west  of  National  Bank  building,  occupied  by  Dr.  H.  A. 
Barrett. 

SITE  OF  THE  OLD  JAIL. 

BRITISH   SOLDIERS  CONFINED   HERE. 

This  was  at  a  point  close  to  the  north-west  side  of  the  old  burying  - 
ground  on  Main  Street,  on  land  of  Reuben  N.  Rice. 

SITE  OF  CAPT.  WHEELER'S  GRIST-MILL. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  Milldam,  next  to  the  Bank,  on  the  spot 
now  occupied  by  the  shop  of  Asa  C.  Collier.  The  old  mill-stones  form 
a  substantial  part  of  the  foundation  of  the  present  building. 

SITE  OF  CAPT.  WHEELER'S  STOREHOUSE. 

PROVINCIAL   F1-OUR   STORED   HERE. 

On  the  west  side  of  Walden  Street,  south  of  the  Trinitarian  Church, 
on  land  of  Nathan  B.  Stow. 

MERRIAM'S  CORNER. 

HERE  THE   MINUTE  MEN    FROM    OLD   NORTH    BRIDGE,  WITH    READING    AND    BILLERICA 
COMPANIES,  ATTACKED  THE    BRITISH   ON   THEIR    RETREAT. 

This  was  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  from  the  centre  of  the  town, 
on  the  Boston  road,  at  the  junction  of  that  thoroughfare  with  the  old 
road  to  Bedford. 


34  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

RESIDENCE  OF   DR.  SAMUEL  PRESCOTT, 
WHO   BROUGHT   THE   NEWS   OF   THE    MARCH   OF   THE   BRITISH    FROM    BOSTON. 

House  now  occupied  by  John   B.  Moore  on   Lexington    Street,  in 
the  easterly  part  of  the  town. 

"THE  CONCORD  ROAD  TO  BOSTON 

I  FOR  ONE 

MOST   GIN'LLY  OLLUS  CALL   IT 
JOHN    BULL'S   RUN." 

Extract  from  the  "  Biglow  Papers,"  posted  at  foot  of   the  hill  on 
Lexington  Street,  north  of  the  house  of  George  Heywood. 

SHOP  OF   REUBEN    BROWN, 
WHERE    SADDLES,   CARTRIDGE  BOXES,   &C.,  WERE    MADE   FOR   THE   PROVINCIAL  ARMY. 

House  on  Lexington  Street,  east  side,  second  house  north  of  George 
Heywood's,  and  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  Julia  Clark. 


OLD   MEETING-HOUSE. 

BUILT,  1712.       ENLARGED,    1792        REMODELLED,    AND    TURNED    HALFWAY    ROUND,    1841. 

FIRST    PROVINCIAL    CONGRESS    MET    HERE    OCT.    11,    1774.       SECOND    CONGRESS 

MET     HERE    MARCH    22,    1775,  AND    ADJOURNED    FOUR    DAYS    BEFORE    THE 

BATTLE    AT    OLD    NORTH    BRIDGE. 

It  is  unnecessary  to   describe  the  location  of  the  Church  of  the 
First  Parish. 

WRIGHT'S    TAVERN. 

PITCAIRN,    STIRRING    HIS    BRANDY    WITH    BLOODY    FINGER,    SAID,    "l     HOPE    TO    STIR 
THE   DAMNED  YANKEE   BLOOD   SO   BEFORE   NIGHT." 

House  commonly  known  as  the  Jarvis  House,  facing  the  Common, 
a  few  rods  north  of  the  old  meeting-house. 


SITE  OF  OLD  COURT-HOUSE,   I775. 

West  side  of  Monument  Square,  south  of  old  engine-house,  on  land 
now  owned  by  Bishop  Williams. 

PROVINCIAL  STOREHOUSE,   I775. 

House  now  occupied  by  Louis  A.  Surette,  facing  Monument  Square, 
on  the  north  side. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  35 

HOUSE  OF  ELISHA  JONES,   1775. 

On  Monument  Street,  east  side,  now  occupied  by  John  S.  Keyes. 
In  the  shed  attached  to  the  house  is  a  bullet-hole  "pierced  by  a 
British  musket-ball"  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1775. 

An  old  willow  tree  on  the  same  premises,  planted  on  the  2Oth  of 
April,  1775,  bore  the  following  inscription,  from  Holmes's  "  One- 
Horse  Shay  :  "  — 

"LITTLE  OF  ALL   WE   VALUE   HERE 
WAKES  ON   THE   MORN   OF   ITS   HUNDREDTH   YEAR 
WITHOUT   BOTH    FEELING   AND   LOOKING   QUEER." 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  road  was  the  following  :  — 

OLD   MANSE, 
OCCUPIED   BY   REV.   WILLIAM    EMERSON,  APRIL   19,  1775. 

Further  description  is  unnecessary. 

HOUSE  OF   MAJOR  JOHN    BUTTRICK,   I775. 

House  situated  on  the  hill  west  of  Flint's  Bridge,  and  lately  occu 
pied  by  Capt.  Francis  Jarvis. 

HOUSE  OF   NATHAN    BARRETT,   I775. 

Situated  on  Punkatasset  Hill,  and  now  occupied  by  John  B. 
Tileston. 

HOUSE  OF  COL.  JAMES   BARRETT,   I775. 

Situated  about  two  miles  from  the  village,  in  a  north-westerly  di 
rection,  near  Angier's  Mills.  It  is  now  owned  by  the  heirs  of  Prescott 
Barrett. 

In  the  field  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  near  the  battle-ground, 
were  posted  the  following  memorable  utterances,  so  closely  connected 
with  the  history  of  the  battle  :  — 

"FIRE,  FELLOW-SOLDIERS!     FOR  GOD'S  SAKE,    FIRE!" 

MAJOR    BUTTRICK. 

11  I    HAVE  N'T  A  MAN  THAT'S  AFRAID  TO  GO  !  " 
CAPT.  ISAAC   DAVIS. 

"WILL  YOU   LET  THEM    BURN  THE  TOWN   DOWN?" 

ADJUTANT    HOSMER. 


^6  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Just  beyond  the  entrance  to  the  Old  Manse  grounds  was  erected  a 
triumphal  arch  with  the  following  inscription  from  Lowell's  "  Biglow 
Papers : "  - 

"THE  CONCORD   BRIDGE,  WHICH    DAVIS,  WHEN    HE  CAME, 
FOUND  WAS  THE    BEE-LINE  TRACK  TO   HEAVEN   AND   FAME." 

Several  other  houses  which  were  standing  at  the  time  of  the  fight, 
but,  so  far  as  is  known,  have  no  other  historical  connection  with  the 
day,  were  marked  by  signs  bearing  the  date  "  I775-" 

Such  were  the  houses  of  Jonathan  Wheeler  (the  Ephraim  Wheeler 
house),  D.  G.  Lang  (the  Humphrey  Barrett  house),  Benjamin 
Tolman,  Walcott  and  Holden  (the  Davis  house),  Joel  W.  Walcott, 
(the  Dr.  Hunt  House),  Heywood  and  Pierce  (the  Yellow  Block),  Julia 
Clark  (the  Reuben  Brown  house  and  shop),  George  Heywood  (the 
John  Beaton  house),  and  Maria  K.  Prescott. 

At  the  western  corner  of  the  Hill  Burying-Ground  was  placed  a 
sign  to  indicate  that  "Revolutionary  Heroes"  were  busied  on  the 
hill  So  far  as  they  could  be  ascertained,  the  graves  of  all  the 
patriots  who  were  in  arms  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1775,  and  were 
afterwards  buried  in  Concord,  were  sought  out  and  made  conspic 
uous  by  an  American  flag  placed  over  each  grave. 

The  names  of  the  men  and  their  places  of  burial  are  as  follows  :  - 

OLD   BURYING-GROUND. 

Capt.  Charles  Miles.  John  Hostner. 

Ensign  John  Barrett.  Elijah  Hosmer. 

HILL  BURYING-GROUND. 

Col.  James  Barrett.  Stephen  Barrett. 

Maj.  John  Buttrick.  Benjamin  Clark. 

Capt.  Nathan  Barrett.  Ephraim  Wood. 

Capt.  David  Brown.  John  Buttrick,  Jun. 

Lieut.  Francis  Wheeler.  William  Parkman. 

Rev.  William  Emerson.  Amos  Melvin. 

Reuben  Brown.  Silas  Mann. 


SLEEPY    HOLLOW   CEMETERY. 

Lieut.  Joseph  Hosmer.  Abel  Davis-. 

Benjamin  Hosmer. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  37 

The  Committee  of  Arrangements,  at  a  meeting  held  October  17, 
1874,  appointed  Messrs.  Melvin,  Shattuck,  and  Emerson  a  sub 
committee  to  contract  for  and  erect  a  liberty-pole,  and  raise  funds  for 
the  purpose. 

At  the  regular  town  meeting,  November  10,  the  Committee  was 
authorized  to  expend  five  hundred  dollars  for  this  purpose,  that  sum 
being  in  addition  to  the  sum  named  in  the  vote  under  which  the 
Committee  was  appointed. 

The  elegant  flag-staff  that  now  commands  our  village  was  built  by 
George  E.  Young,  of  Boston,  at  a  cost  of  four  hundred  dollars,  and 
extends  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  above  the  ground.  Most  of  the 
remainder  of  the  additional  appropriation  was  expended  for  a  flag, 
ball,  and  ropes,  as  will  appear  by  the  financial  report  of  the 
Committee. 

On  the  day  of  the  celebration,  the  liberty-pole  was  beautifully 
dressed  with  flags,  arranged  under  the  immediate  direction  of  Lieut. 
Commander  Gorringe,  and  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  objects 
in  the  town.  On  either  side,  pointed  up  Main  Street,  stood  the  two 
field-pieces  presented  to  the  town  by  the  Commonwealth,  and  bearing 
the  following  inscription  in  raised  letters  :  — 

"The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  consecrate  the  names  of  Major  John 
Buttrick  and  Capt.  Isaac  Davis,  whose  valour  and  example  excited  their 
fellow-citizens  to  a  successful  resistance  of  a  superior  number  of  British 
troops  at  Concord  Bridge,  the  1.9  of  April,  1775,  which  was  the  beginning 
of  a  contest  in  arms  that  ended  in  American  independence." 

At  an  early  day  the  Committee  made  choice  of  Major-General 
Francis  C.  Barlow,  of  New  York,  to  act  as  Chief  Marshal ;  and  the 
following  gentlemen  were  appointed  Assistant  Marshals  to  act  as 
mounted  aides  in  forming  and  conducting  the  procession  :  — 

Col.  Henry  L.  Higginson,  Col.  Charles  L.  Peirson,  Col.  Charles 
W.  Davis,  Col.  Henry  S.  Russell,  Col.  William  B.  Storer,  Col.  George 
M.  Barnard,  Col.  Thomas  M.  Wheeler,  Col.  Charles  E.  Fuller,  Col. 
Edwin  S.  Barrett,  Capt.  William  E.  Wilson,  Capt.  Joseph  Thompson, 
Capt.  John  F.  Stark,  Dr.  Edward  W.  Emerson. 

In  addition  to  these  assistants,  a  large  number  of  gentlemen  con 
sented  to  act  as  unmounted  aides,  to  represent  the  Chief  Marshal  in 
their  respective  towns  before  the  day  of  the  celebration,  as  well  as 
to  execute  his  orders  respecting  the  movements  of  the  procession. 

While  we  cannot  attempt,   in  this  report,  to  acknowledge  all  the 


38  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

kind  acts  of  assistance  rendered  us  by  patriotic  friends  all  over  the 
land,  it  would  be  a  great  oversight  to  omit  all  mention  of  the  con 
summate  ability  with  which  the  procession  was  planned  and  moved 
by  Gen.  Francis  C.  Barlow  and  his  aides. 

Never  on  the  field  of  battle  did  our  Chief  Marshal  have  greater 
need  of  coolness  and  decision  ;  and  we  venture  to  say  that  never  was 
the  exhibition  of  those  qualities  accompanied  by  greater  success  than 
in  starting  a  procession  such  as  ours  within  twenty  minutes  after  the 
time  set  for  it  to  be  in  motion,  and  conducting  it  safely  and  without 
delay  to  its  destination  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  town. 

When  all  the  events  and  occurrences  of  the  iQth  of  April,  1875, 
here  and  elsewhere,  are  taken  into  consideration,  we  think  that  every 
one  will  feel,  with  the  Committee,  that  to  the  promptness  and  effi 
ciency  of  Gen.  Barlow  and  his  assistants,  mounted  and  unmounted, 
is  chiefly  due  the  successful  carrying  but  of  our  programme. 

The  following  announcement  was  published  in  all  the  Boston  daily 
papers  during  the  week  immediately  preceding  the  iQth  :  — 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  CONCORD,  IQTH  OF  APRIL  1875. 

The  Committee  of  Arrangements  of  the  town  of  Concord  have  m'ade 
preparations  for  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  Con 
cord  Fight,  i9th  of  April,  1775  ;  and  the  citizens  of  all  the  towns  locally  or 
otherwise  interested  in  the  events  of  that  day,  and  the  public  generally  are 
invited  to  be  present. 

The  exercises  will  begin  with  a  salute  of  one  hundred  guns  at  sunrise. 

At  nine,  A.  M.,  a  procession  will  be  formed,  escorted  by  the  Fifth  Regiment 
M  V.  M.,  and  under  the  direction  of  Gen.  F.  C.  Barlow  as  chief  marshal. 
After  visiting  the  monuments  at  the  old  North  Bridge,  the  procession  will 
march  to  a  pavilion  on  the  Provincial  parade-ground,  where  the  exercises  of 
the  dedication  of  the  new  statue  will  take  place,  consisting  of  an  address  by 
R.  W.  Emerson,  and  an  oration  upon  the  events  of  the  day  by  George 
William  Curtis. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  oration,  the  company  will  proceed  to  the  dinner 
tent  on  the  same  field.  Addresses  will  be  made  at  the  table  by  many 
distinguished  speakers. 

E.  R.  Hoar  will  act  as  President  of  the  Day. 

The  exercises  will  conclude  with  a  grand  ball  at  the  Agricultural  Hall  in 
the  evening. 

Tickets  to  the  dinner,  $1.50;  to  the  ball,  $6;  to  be  obtained  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Arrangements,  as  advertised.  The  number  of  tickets  to  the  dinner 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  39 

now  remaining  unsold   is  very  limited  ;  and  all  persons  who  desire  to  obtain 
them  should  send  their  applications  immediately. 

Special  trains  will  be  provided  on  the  Fitchburg  and  Lowell  Railroads  to 
accommodate  those  who  desire  to  unite  in  the  celebration. 

By  order  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements, 

GEORGE  KEYES,  Chairman. 
CONCORD,  Mass.,  April  10,  1875. 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  Secretary. 

Following  this  announcement  was  the  General  Order  of  the  Chief 
Marshal,  which,  after  giving  the  component  parts  of  each  division  of 
the  procession,  contained  the  following  general  directions  :  — 

The  different  divisions  will  form  as  follows,  at  precisely  nine  o'clock,  A.M., 
of  Monday,  April  19,  1875  :  — 

First  division  on  Main  Street,  right  on  Thoreau  Street. 

Second  division  on  Middle  Street,  right  on  Thoreau  Street. 

Third  division  on  Sudbury  Street,  east  of  the  railroad,  right  on  Thoreau 
Street. 

Fourth  Division  on  Sudbury  Street,  west  of  railroad,  right  on  railroad. 

Fifth  Division  on  Thoreau  Street,  south  of  Sudbury  Street,  right  on 
Sudbury  Street. 

All  persons  and  organizations  are  requested  to  proceed,  immediately  on 
arriving  in  Concord,  to  the  points  designated  as  above,  in  order  that  they 
may  be  placed  in  position  by  the  Marshal's  aides  in  charge  of  the  respective 
divisions. 

By  reason  of  the  concurrent  ceremonies  on  the  same  day  in  the  town  of 
Lexington,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  procession  move  punctually  at 
half-past  nine  o'clock,  and  all  persons  and  organizations  not  formed  in  their 
proper  positions  at  that  time  will  be  considered  as  having  declined  the  in 
vitation  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies.  The  available  widths  of  the  streets 
on  which  the  divisions  are  to  form  are  as  follows  :  Main  Street,  forty  feet ; 
Middle  Street,  thirty-five  feet ;  Sudbury  Street,  thirty-five  feet ;  Thoreau 
Street,  thirty-five  feet. 

Military  organizations  will  march  in  company  or  platoon  fronts,  as  their 
commanders  may  designate. 

All  bodies  of  civilians  marching  on  foot  will  march  in  ranks  four  abreast, 
with  intervals  of  four  feet  between  the  ranks. 

In  order  to  prevent  confusion  in  the  music,  the  Marshal's  aides  (mounted) 
will  give  directions  to  the  several  bands,  either  directly,  or  through  the  com 
manders  of  the  organizations  to  which  the  bands  belong,  as  to  the  order  of 
playing. 

All  ladies  desiring  to  obtain  seats  at  the  oration  will  assemble  at  the  Town 
Hall  punctually  at  half-past  nine  o'clock,  and  will  be  conducted  to  the  tent. 


4O  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

At  the  close  of  the  oration  and  other  exercises  in  the  tent,  those  desiring 
to  participate  in  the  dinner  will  proceed  forthwith  to  the  tent  provided  for 
that  purpose. 

Col.  Theodore  Lyman,  191  Commonwealth  Avenue,  Boston,  will  represent 
the  Chief  Marshal  in  Boston  until  the  day  of  the  celebration,  and  will  answer 
all  inquiries. 

All  organizations  or  bodies  proposing  to  join  the  procession,  and  not  pro 
vided  for  above,  are  requested  to  communicate  with  Col.  Lyman  forthwith. 
It  will  greatly  facilitate  the  orderly  arrangement  of  the  procession,  if  all 
persons,  bodies,  and  organizations  mentioned  in  the  above  order  will  commu 
nicate,  as  early  as  practicable,  a  statement  of  their  numbers,  and  when  and 
how  they  propose  to  reach  Concord,  as  follows :  — 

Those  in  First  Division,  to  Col.  Henry  L.  Higginson,  44  State  Street, 
Boston. 

Those  in  Second  Division,  to  Col.  Theodore  Lyman,  191  Commonwealth 
Avenue  Boston. 

Those  in  Third  Division  to  Col.  William  B.  Storer,  58  and  60  India 
Square,  Boston. 

Those  in  Fourth  Division,  to  Col.  Charles  L.  Peirson,  44  Kilby  Street, 
Boston. 

Those  in  Fifth  Division,  to  Col.  Charles  E.  Fuller,  2  State  Street,  Boston. 

Engraved  plan,  showing  the  location  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  station, 
and  of  the  streets  on  which  the  several  divisions  are  to  form,  will  be  sent  to 
the  assistant  marshals  and  aides;  and  all  persons  intending  to  join  in  the 
procession  are  requested  to  familiarize  .themselves  with  the  position  of  the 
division  to  which  they  belong,  and  their  own  place  therein. 

FRANCIS  C.  BARLOW, 

Chief  Marshal. 

The  Chief  Marshal  gave  further  directions  to  his  assistants  and  to 
the  unmounted  aides  in  each  participating  town  by  the  following 
printed  order :  — 

1775-  CONCORD   FIGHT.  1875. 

CONCORD,  MASS.,  April  10,  1875. 
To  the  Unmounted  Aides  of  the  Several  Towns. 

Below  is  a  sketch  of 'the  streets  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  railroad 
station,  where  the  procession  will  form. 

You  will  observe  from  the  published  order  of  the  procession  that  the 
official  delegation  especially  invited  from  your  town  (the  selectmen,  town 
officers,  &c.)  are  in  the  Fourth  Division,  in  the  order  indicated.  This  divis 
ion  forms  on  Sudbury  Street,  west  of  the  railroad,  right  on  the  railroad. 

Will  you  please  see  that  the   members  of  this  official  delegation   clearly 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  41 

understand  the  position  of  their  division,  and  their  own  position  in  it,  and 
will  you  please  communicate  at  once  to  Col.  CHARLES  L.  PEIRSON  (the  mar 
shal  of  the  Fourth  Division),  at  44  Kilby  Street,  Boston,  the  number  of  such 
official  delegation  who  will  attend. 

The  general  body  of  the  citizens  of  your  town,  preceded  by  yourself  and 
the  town  banner,  and  headed  by  such  bands  or  organizations  as  you  may 
have  as  escorts,  will  compose  the  Fifth  Division,  and  will  form  on  Thoreau 
Street,  right  on  Sudbury  Street. 

The  point  where  your  banner  will  be  placed  will  be  indicated  by  a  post 
on  Thoreau  Street,  marked  with  the  name  of  your  town. 

The  delegation  will  form  on  the  banner  in  ranks  four  abreast,  and  with 
intervals  of  four  feet  between  the  ranks. 

Please  communicate  at  once  to  Col.  CHARLES  E.  FULLER,  No.  2  State 
Street,  the  number  of  your  general  delegation,  and  whether  you  will  have  a 
band  or  any  organization  as  an  escort ;  and  please  make  your  delegation  as 
familiar  as  possible  with  these  details. 

Observe  that  the  official  delegations  are  in  the  Fourth  Division,  and  the 
general  delegations  are  in  the  Fifth  Division,  and  communicate  accordingly. 

FRANCIS  C.  BARLOW, 

Chief  Marshal. 


The   following    circular   was     distributed    among  the    people 
Concord  by  authority  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  :  — 


of 


CONCORD    FIGHT. 


1875- 


The  following  Order  of  Arrangements  respecting  the  people  of  CONCORD, 
and  their  accommodation  at  the  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION,  has  been  made 
by  Major  Gen.  Barlow,  Chief  Marshal,  and  will  be  strictly  adhered  to. 


42  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Ladies  who  desire  to  be  present  at  the  Dedicatory  Exercises  and  Oration 
are  invited  to  assemble  at  the  Town  Hall,  Monday,  April  iQth,  at  9  o'clock, 
A.M.,  from  which  place  they  will  be  conducted  to  the  Oration  tent,  where 
seats  will  be  provided  for  their  accommodation.1 

The  citizens  of  Concord,  generally,  and  their  friends  who  are  not  pro 
vided  for  elsewhere  in  the  procession,  are  requested  to  assemble  promptly  at 
half-past  eight  o'clock,  A.M.,  on  Thoreau  Street,  south  of  Sudbury  Street, 
where  they  will  be  formed  in  ranks  of  four,  preparatory  to  joining  in  the 
procession. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  people  of'Concord  will  see  the  necessity  of  complying 
with  the  above  arrangements,  which  have  been  devised  for  the  special  pur 
pose  of  enabling  all  to  be  present  at  the  Dedicatory  Exercises  and  Oration. 

No  person,  except  ladies,  will  be  admitted  to  the  oration  tent  until  after 
the  procession  has  entered  it. 

CONCORD,  April  12,1875. 

The  following  correspondence  with  Mr.  George  William  Curtis 
was  reported  November  14,  1874,  by  the  sub-committee  on  the 
Oration,  and  was  accepted  with  unanimous  approval  by  the  general 
committee :  — 

CONCORD,  MASS.,  Oct.  28,  1874. 

GEORGE  W.  CURTIS,  ESQ. 

Dear  Sir,  —  In  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  Concord,  we  cordially  invite 
you  to  deliver  an  oration  to  the  people  of  this  town  and  their  guests  on  the 
1 9th  of  April,  1875,  the  centennial  anniversary  of  Concord  Fight. 

In  tendering  you  this  invitation,  we  feel  that  we  are  giving  expression  to 
the  universal  desire  of  our  people  ;  and  we  are  confident,  that  your  accept 
ance  will  give  a  national  character  to  this  commemoration  of  the  deeds  of 
our  fathers. 

Your  obedient  servants, 

CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT.  ) 

EDWARD  C.  DAMON,       I    For  the  &"*** 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  )     of  Arrangements. 


1  At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee,  April  14,  1875,  it  was  voted,  "that  three 
members  of  this  Committee  be  appointed  a  committee  to  meet  ladies  at  the  Town  Hall, 
and  to  conduct  them  to  seats  in  the  oration  tent."  Accordingly,  such  a  committee  was 
appointed,  consisting  of  Albert  E.  Wood,  Elijah  Wood,  and  Marcellus  Houghton,  who 
reported  at  the  meeting  held  May  8,  after  the  celebration,  that  they  attended  to  their  duty, 
and  endeavored  to  conduct  ladies  to  the  tent,  and  did  conduct  several  ladies  there ;  but 
that  others  seemed  unwilling  to  go. 


THE    PREPARATIONS.  43 

WEST  NEW  BRIGHTON,  STATEN  ISLAND,  N.Y., 
10  November,  1874. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Your  invitation  to  deliver  an  oration  in  Concord  on  the 
centennial  anniversary  of  Concord  Fight  is  an  honor  which  I  cannot  hesitate 
most  gratefully  and  heartily,  but  with  sincere  diffidence,  to  accept. 

With  great  regard,  I  am  very  respectfully  yours, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

Messrs.  CHARLES  H.  WALCOTT, 
EDWARD  C.  DAMON, 
SAMUEL  HOAR, 

For  the  Committee. 

Mr.  Curtis's  address  forms,  by  his  permission,  a  subsequent  portion 
of  this  report,  and  speaks  for  itself.  Words  of  eulogy  from  us  to  the 
people  of  Concord  are  unnecessary,  either  in  praise  of  the  orator  or 
his  work;  but  we  think  it  may  safely  be  said  that,  while  few  who 
heard  that  masterly  production  could  fail  to  perceive  the  laborious 
care  and  reverential  interest  with  which  he  had  studied  his  subject, 
the  earnestness, v  patriotism,  and  graceful  utterance  of  the  speaker, 
were  felt  and  appreciated  by  all. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Emerson,  having  been  requested  to  prepare  an  address, 
was  appointed  by  the  Monument  Committee  to  speak  for  them  at  the 
dedication  of  the  beautiful  subject  of  their  trust.  It  will  be  deemed 
no  unimportant  feature  of  our  celebration  that  it  was  graced  and 
inspired  by  the  presence  and  ever  youthful  enthusiasm  of  so  true  a 
descendant  of  the  Concord  minister  whose  counsels  and  example 
animated  his  people  in  the  opening  scene  of  the  Revolution. 

Following  Mr.  Emerson's  address,  Prof.  James  Russell  Lowell 
recited  the  noble  ode  which  he  had  prepared  by  invitation  of  the 
Committee,  a  copy  of  which  is  printed  hereafter  in  its  order.  It  will 
be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  striking  contributions  to  the  suc 
cess  of  the  celebration,  and  as  worthy  of  its  distinguished  author's 
fame.  It  renews  trte  sense  of  obligation  to  him  which  the  people  of 
Concord  have  felt  on  other  occasions. 

Rev.  Grindall  Reynolds,  the  minister  of  the  First  Parish,  which  in 
1775  was  co-extensive  with  the  town  of  Concord,  was  selected  with 
one  accord  for  the  office  of  Chaplain.  To  him  we  are  indebted,  not 
only  for  the  actual  services  rendered  on  the  iQth  of  April,  but,  also, 
for  many  previous  manifestations  of  his  love  for  the  town,  and  of 
interest  in  its  history,  which  were  of  great  assistance  to  the  Com 
mittee  in  carrying  out  their  plans.  The  sermon  preached  by  Mr. 
Reynolds  on  Sunday  the  i8th  appears,  by  his  permission,  in  the  sub 
sequent  pages  of  this  report. 


44  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

The  Committee  has  attempted  to  show  its  appreciation  of  the 
services  of  E.  R.  Hoar,  President  of  the  Day,  by  presenting  him 
with  a  letter  of  thanks,  which  was  as  follows :  viz.,  — 

CONCORD,  May  10,  1875. 

HON.  E.  R    HOAR. 

Dear  Sir,  —  The  Committee  appointed  by  the  town  to  make  arrangements 
for  the  celebration  of  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  Concord  Fight  on  the 
igth  of  April,  1875,  desire  to  express  to  you  their  sincere  thanks  for  the  able 
manner  in  which  you  performed  the  arduous  duties  devolving  upon  you  as 
President  of  the  Day  upon  that  occasion. 

They  are  aware  that  they  are  largely  indebted  to  your  untiring  exertions 
for  the  success  of  the  celebration,  and  feel  that  the  town  of  Concord  has 
incurred  another  debt  of  gratitude,  in  addition  to  the  many  it  already  owes 
you  for  the  assistance  you  have  so  freely  rendered  in  times  past  whenever  it 
has  been  needed  to  insure  the  prosperity  and  welfare  of  your  native  town. 
We  are  very  respectfully  yours,  &c., 

The  above  letter  was  signed  by  each  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements. 


SUNDAY  SERVICES. 


SUNDAY  SERVICES. 


The  scale  of  preparation  had  been  such,  that  it  was  hardly  possible 
for  the  assembling  of  guests  to  be  confined  to  one  day.  As  early, 
therefore,  as  Saturday,  April  17,  the  Ransom  Guards  of  St.  Albans, 
Vermont,  escorting  Hon.  Asahel  Peck,  the  governor  of  that  state, 
and  his  staff,  arrived  by  a  special  train,  were  met  at  the  depot  by 
the  reception  committee,  and  marched  down  the  main  street  to  the 
hotel.1 

On  Saturday,  also,  in  the  evening,  President  Grant  and  Messrs. 
Fish,  Belknap,  Robeson,  and  Delano  of  his  Cabinet,  who  visited  New 
England  to  testify  to  the  great  national  importance  of  the  events 
here  celebrated,  came  from  Boston  as  the  guests  of  Judge  Hoar. 

Friends  and  relatives  from  all  parts  of  the  country  filled  the  houses 
of  our  towns  people,  and  the  public  accommodations  were  stretched 
to  their  utmost. 

Sunday,  April  18,  was  a  chilly,  gray  day.  The  town  was  quiet, 
considering  the  large  numbers  of  visitors  who  filled  the  streets, 
and  crowded  the  churches. 

The  Portland  Mechanic  Blues,  escorting  Hon.  Nelson  Dingley,  jr., 
the  governor  of  Maine,  and  his  staff,  arrived  early  in  the  morning  ; 
and  this  company,  with  the  Ransom  Guards  and  the  Concord  Artil 
lery,  attended  church  in  the  morning  and  afternoon. 

The  street  decorations  had  been  put  in  position.  Up  and  down  the 
streets,  private  and  public  buildings  were  festooned  with  flags  and 
streamers.  The  two  mammoth  tents  overlooked  the  town  from  be 
yond  the  river. 

Against  the  vast  background  of  the  principal  celebration,  the  mod 
est  services  at  the  old  meeting-house  on  Sunday  attracted  little  public 
notice,  yet  they  seem  to  us  worthy  of  remembrance.  The  religious 
spirit  was  strong  in  the  colonies.  William  Emerson,  the  pastor  of  this 
church,  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  fight  at  the  Bridge,  and  by  his 

1  This  company,  which  made  so  favorable  an  impression  during  their  stay  in  Concord, 
adopted  the  sensible  course  of  using  the  special  train  of  sleeping-cars  on  which  they  came, 
as  a  permanent  camp.  They  thereby  had  ample  accommodations,  attended  the  Ball,  and 
returned  to  St.  Albans  Tuesday  morning. 


48  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

example  and  teaching  did  much  to  strengthen  the  patriotism  of  the 
people  of  this  neighborhood.  In  that  meeting-house  the  first  provin 
cial  congress  assembled.  There  John  Hancock  was  chosen  to  preside, 
and  Samuel  Adams  was  an  active  and  influential  member.  From  that 
meeting-house  went  forth  the  orders  for  the  collection  of  stores  and 
munitions  of  war  that  caused  such  uneasiness  to  the  British  officials  ; 
and  from  its  pulpit,  from  that  day  to  this,  the  lessons  of  patriotism, 
toleration,  and  liberty,  have  been  inculcated  by  wise  teachers. 

It  was  especially  fitting  that  there,  in  the  presence  of  the  chief 
Executive  of  the  nation,  of  numerous  visitors  from  different  states,  and 
of  a  large  assemblage  crowding  the  church  to  repletion,  attention 
should  be  called  with  praise  and  prayer  to  the  simple,  the  wonderful 
story  of  those  men  who  once  occupied  that  place,  and  of  the  birth  of 
that  nation  whose  freedom,  and,  probably,  whose  existence,  was  there 
made  sure. 

The  meeting-house  was  handsomely  decorated. 

The  services  were  the  regular  Sunday  services  of  the  parish, — 
prayer,  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  singing  by  the  whole  congregation 
led  by  the  Adelphi  Quartette  of  Boston,  and  a  discourse  by  Rev. 
Grindall  Reynolds,  the  pastor.  The  singing  of  "  America,"  heartily 
joined  in  by  the  military  companies  and  all  the  congregation,  was 
exceedingly  impressive. 

Mr.  Reynolds's  discourse  was  as  follows  :  — 


DISCOURSE. 

BY   REV.    MB.    REYNOLDS. 

"Look  upon  Zion,  the  city  of  our  solemnities  :  thine  eyes  shall  see  Jerusalem 
a  quiet  habitation.  For  the  Lord  is  our  judge,  the  Lord  is  our  lawgiver,  the 
Lord  is  our  king."  —  ISAIAH  xxxiii.  20,  22. 

THE  house  in  which  we  meet  was  first  occupied  for  public 
worship  in  the  year  1712.  It  was  then  a  plain,  homely 
building,  scarcely  as  elegant,  either  in  form  or  finish,  as  most 
of  our  farmers'  barns.  All  which  now  adorns  it  —  spire,  porch, 
organ,  and  painted  walls  —  are  the  additions  of  later  and  more 
luxurious  times.  But  it  was  built  of  the  great  pines  and 
oaks,  which  had  endured  the  heats  of  a  hundred  summers, 
and  breasted  the  storms  of  a  hundred  winters;  and  it  was 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  49 

built  to  last.  In  its  plainness,  in  its  simplicity,  and  in  its 
sturdiness,  it  was  no  unfit  type  of  the  strong  and  unpretend 
ing  men  who  reared  it,  or  of  their  sons,  who,  on  that  day,  — 
whose  morning  found  us  colonies,  whose  evening  left  us  a 
nation, — played  their  part  with  a  rare  modesty,  decision,  and 
courage.  It  was  an  old  structure,  therefore,  when  in  October, 
1774,  it  gave  shelter  to  the  First  Provincial  Congress  of 
Massachusetts ;  weather-beaten,  too,  and  open,  no  doubt,  to 
all  the  breezes  of  heaven.  For  thus  runs  the  provincial 
record,  "  In  consideration  of  the  coldness  of  the  season,  and 
that  Congress  sit  in  a  room  without  fire,  Resolved,  That  those 
members  who  incline  thereto  may  sit  with  their  hats  on, 
while  in  Congress."  But,  plain  and  homely  as  the  house 
was,  it  was  the  scene  of  most  important  transactions.  Here, 
only  two  days  after  its  assembling,  Congress  declared  to  Gen. 
Gage,  in  memorable  phrase,  that  truth,  which  must  have 
been  new  to  his  ears,  but  which  is  at  the  foundation  of  our 
national  life,  "  that  the  sole  end  of  government  is  the  pro 
tection  and  security  of  the  people.  Whenever,  therefore,  that 
power,  which  was  originally  instituted  to  effect  these  impor 
tant  and  valuable  purposes,  is  employed  to  harass,  distress,  or 
enslave  the  people,  in  this  case  it  becomes  a  curse."  Here 
it  was,  that  those  military  Rules  and  Regulations  were  passed, 
just  one  fortnight  before  the  battle,  which  welded  the  scat 
tered  militia  of  the  State  into  a  compact  army.  Here,  three 
days  later,  that  invitation  to  the  other  New  England  colonies, 
to  furnish  their  quota  for  the  general  defence,  was  voted ; 
and  to  such  effect,  that,  almost  before  the  retreating  British 
troops  had  crossed  the  Charles  River,  companies  from  New 
Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  were  on  their 
march  to  join  the  forces  which  were  beleaguering  Boston. 
And  here,  finally,  on  the  I5th  of  April,  was  issued  that 
Proclamation  for  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  every  one  of 
whose  sentences  was  an  appeal  to  Almighty  God  against 
tyranny.  This  old  house  saw  the  flow  and  ebb  of  the  first 
and  the  last  tide  of  invasion  which  ever  swept  over  Massa- 


5O  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

chusetts  soil.  At  seven  o'clock  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1775, 
Col.  Smith  halted  his  forces  in  the  road  and  square  in  front  of 
it,  while,  with  Major  Pitcairn,  he  climbed  the  steep  slope  of  the 
old  graveyard  to  take  a  view  of  the  surrounding  country. 
Four  hours  later,  in  the  same  road  and  square,  that  army 
was  marching  and  countermarching  with  timid  irresolution, 
before,  at  twelve  o'clock,  it  began  its  well-nigh  fatal  retreat. 
Let  me  not  forget  to  add,  that  in  this  old  church  it  was,  that 
the  Rev.  William  Emerson,  who  gave  up  his  own  life  to  his 
country,  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  deepened  the  trust,  and 
quickened  the  patriotism,  of  the  men  and  women  of  Concord 
by  his  own  flaming  zeal  and  loyalty.  Could  there  be  a  better 
place  in  which  to  gather,  that,  by  praise  and  prayer,  we  may 
fit  our  minds  for  the  sacred  services  of  remembrance  and 
gratitude  in  which  on  the  morrow  we  are  to  engage  ?  Not 
within  the  bounds  of  Middlesex  County  is  there  another  spot 
so  vitally  connected  with  the  causes  which  preceded,  and 
with  the  results  which  succeeded,  the  events  of  the  19th  of 
April,  1775. 

I  hold  that  it  was  not  of  accident,  that  the  Provincial 
Congress  met  in  the  meeting-houses  at  Concord,  at  Cam 
bridge,  and  at  Watertown.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  was  for 
mere  convenience,  that  the  Puritan  so  commonly  called  town- 
meetings,  political  gatherings,  and  all  manner  of  public 
assemblies,  within  the  walls  of  the  houses  dedicated  to  public 
worship.  He  did  it,  because  he  thought  that  they  were  the 
fit  places  for  such  things ;  because,  to  his  mind  and  heart,  all 
true  statesmanship  and  all  worthy  government,  were,  equally 
with  praise  and  prayer,  parts  of  a  solemn  recognition  and 
service  of  the  sovereign  God.  It  was  not  that  he  thought 
meanly  of  his  meeting-house,  but  that  he  had  grand  thoughts 
regarding  the  purpose  and  domain  of  all  government  and 
law  deserving  the  respect  of  a  Christian  man.  To-morrow, 
eloquent  lips  shall  portray  to  you  the  political  earnestness, 
the  sagacious  statesmanship,  the  civic  courage,  and  the 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  5  l 

martial  valor,  which  conceived,  which  began,  and  which 
carried  to  a  successful  issue,  that  greatest  of  modern  achieve 
ments,  the  American  Revolution.  Let  me  not  trench  upon 
that  field.  But  the  Puritan  meeting-house  stood,  the  type 
and  symbol  of  other  causes,  which  were  not,  perhaps,  so  often 
expressed  in  words,  but  which  coursed  in  the  very  blood 
of  the  people  themselves,  and  which  gave  to  their  words  and 
to  their  deeds  gravity,  weight,  and  power.  Beneath  all 
material  causes  were  spiritual  causes,  making  the  men  of 
'75  what  they  were,  and  enabling  them  to  accomplish  what 
they  did. 

The  colonists  who  came  to  New  England  did  not  come 
to  advance  their  material  interests,  not  to  prosecute  commer 
cial  enterprises,  not  to  conquer  new  realms,  —  for  none  of 
these  things,  but  to  serve  God  as  they  felt  that  he  ought 
to  be  served.  The  sovereignty  of  God  might  be  to  others 
an  unmeaning  phrase :  to  the  Puritan  it  was  a  solemn  reality. 
And  he  was  here  on  these  bleak  shores  only  that  he  might 
serve  God  and  enjoy  him,  now  and  forevermore,  without  let 
or  hinderance.  If  any  one  doubts  this,  let  him  take  down  a 
volume  of  original  Puritan  letters,  such  as  are  preserved  in 
the  Prince  Collection.  There  they  are,  more  than  two  hun 
dred  years  old,  yellow  with  age,  worn,  and  almost  tattered, 
with  much  handling,  —  there  they  are  ;  and  in  every  one  of 
them,  in  grave  communication  of  minister  to  brother  minis 
ter,  in  diplomatic  note  of  grayheaded  statesman  to  his  peer, 
in  letters  of  sober  affection  of  husband  to  wife,  in  tender 
epistle  of  lover  to  his  mistress,  in  all,  and  on  every  page 
of  all,  you  will  find  the  name  of  God,  and  the  acknowledg 
ment  of  his  authority.  That  this  sense  of  God's  immediate 
sovereignty  had  lost  something  of  its  distinctness  in  the 
century  and  a  half  between  Plymouth  Rock  and  Concord 
Fight,  one  readily  admits.  But  you  read  the  language  of 
him  who  was  the  brain  and  heart,  if  any  one  man  could  be, 
of  the  Revolution,  and  who  yet  was  himself  Puritan  of  Puri 
tans,  Samuel  Adams,  and  you  see  that  the  old  faith  was  all 


52  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

there  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  if  not  on  their  tongues. 
"  It  is  the  glory  of  the  British  Constitution,"  he  says,  "  that  it 
hath  its  foundation  in  the  law  of  God."  What  is  that  but 
the  whole  doctrine  of  God  as  real  sovereign,  expressed  in  a 
line  ?  The  same  principle  is  in  our  blood  to-day.  Drive  a 
true  New-England  man  to  the  wall,  what  is  the  ultimate 
foundation  upon  which  he  takes  his  stand  ?  Not  upon 
power,  not  even  upon  legal  precedent,  but  upon  right. 
And  what  is  right,  but  the  best  we  know  of  the  will  of  Him 
who  sits  upon  the  throne  of  the  universe,  and  whom  we  call 
God? 

The  men  who  marched  down  the  hill,  a  hundred  years  ago, 
to  the  bridge,  were,  for  the  most  part,  sober,  earnest  men,  — 
men  who  went  to  church  Sundays, —  men  who  read  their  Bibles 
and  believed  in  them,  —  men  who  girded  on  their  armor  with 
the  same  serious  and  God-fearing  spirit  with  which  they  went 
up  to  the  house  of  God.  What  made  them  resolute,  fearless, 
and,  in  the  end,  unconquerable,  was  that  they  truly  thought 
that  they  were  on  God's  side.  When  Major  Buttrick  cried 
out, "  Fire,  fellow-soldiers,  for  God's  sake,  fire ! "  I  do  not  take 
it  to  have  been  an  unmeaning  phrase,  or  a  piece  of  irrever 
ence.  I  think  that  from  his  heart  that  gallant  soldier  believed 
that  he  stood  in  arms  for  God's  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
truth  and  the  right. 

It  does  not  admit  of  a  doubt,  that  this  overlapping,  in  the 
Puritan  mind,  of  true  religion  and  true  politics,  shaped  from 
the  beginning  the  relation  of  the  New-England  colonies  to 
royalty.  The  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  never 
had  any  great  acceptance  either  at  Plymouth,  or  Boston,  or 
Salem,  or  Concord.  A  king  was  a  servant  of  God;  his 
work,  the  welfare  of  God's  people.  Supple  courtiers  might 
flatter  a  bad  monarch,  but  not  the  Puritan.  All  the  elements 
of  resistance  to  oppression  were  in  the  air  in  1675  just  as 
much  as  in  1775:  what  prevented  an  explosion  was,  that  as 
yet  the  colonies  were  too  weak  and  insignificant  to  attract 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  53 

the  attention  of  tyrants.  The  sullen  opposition  which  was 
made,  ten  years  later,  to  the  minions  of  James  the  Second, 
the  decision  with  which  Nelson,  Foster,  and  Waterhouse,  the 
predecessors  of  Otis,  Hancock,  and  Adams,  arrested  and  sent 
home  Sir  Edmund  Andros  on  that  iQth  of  April,  just  eighty- 
six  years  before  a  igth  of  April  still  more  famous,  prove  this. 
Said  John  Higginson,  plain  minister  of  Salem,  to  the  proud 
governor,  "  The  people  of  New  England  hold  their  land  by 
the  grand  charter  of  God."  Not  Patrick  Henry,  not  John 
Adams,  not  any  of  the  later  patriots,  ever  spoke  a  bolder 
word.  So  when  the  great  Boston  leader  said  in  1771,  "Kings 
and  governors  may  be  guilty  of  treason  and  rebellion,  and 
they  have  in  general,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  been  more 
guilty  of  it  than  their  subjects;  nay,  what  has  commonly 
been  called  rebellion  in  the  people  has-  often  been  nothing 
else  but  a  manly  and  glorious  struggle  in  opposition  to  the 
lawless  power  of  rebellious  kings  and  princes,  who,  being 
elevated  above  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  paid  by  them  only 
to  be  protectors,  have  been  taught  by  enthusiasts  to  believe 
they  were  authorized  by  God  to  enslave  and  butcher  them," 
he  gave  expression  to  no  new  thought,  but  only  made  a  clear 
statement  of  an  old  truth,  which  had  been  embedded  in  the 
New- England  consciousness  from  the  beginning.  It  was 
John  Adams,  if  I  mistake  not,  who  declared  that  the  old 
Puritan  word  was,  A  magistrate  is  the  servant,  not  of  his  own 
desires,  not  even  of  the  people,  but  of  his  God. 

I  trace  the  influence  of  this  religious  interpretation  of  the 
foundation  of  government  in  that  deep  respect  for  law  which 
grew  up  in  the  New-England  mind,  and  which  was  never 
more  characteristic  of  it  than  in  the  period  of  the  Revolution. 
Law  to  it  was  the  embodiment,  in  an  orderly  manner,  of  the 
right.  Its  ultimate  foundation  was  God ;  its  end,  the  welfare 
of  the  governed.  Any  thing  which  had  not  such  a  founda 
tion  and  purpose  was  not  law  at  all.  You  can  in  no  other 
way  than  this  account  for  the  almost  superstitious  tenacity 


54  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

with  which  the  patriotic  leaders  clung  to  the  substance,  and 
the  forms,  too,  of  legality.  This  tendency  is  evident  at  every 
step.  When  the  Stamp-Act  riot  took  place,  by  which  the 
houses  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  were  gutted,  John  Adams 
records  his  painful  emotions  in  his  private  diary,  and  Samuel 
Adams  agreed  with  Mayhew,  that  he  would  rather  have  lost 
his  right  hand  than  it  had  happened.  Not  because  either  of 
them  had  any  personal  sympathy  with  the  sufferers,  but 
because  their  whole  souls  revolted  at  the  idea  of  righting 
wrongs  by  unlawful  violence.  When  the  legislature  made  its 
final  break  with  Gov.  Gage  at  Salem,  its  last  act  was  to  declare 
the  illegality  of  the  proceedings  of  the  royal  officer,  and  the 
legality  of  its  own  proceedings.  It  was  so  all  through.  Fifty 
years  ago,  in  this  town,  one  of  New  England's  greatest 
orators  spoke  of  the  events  of  the  igth  of  April  as  the 
result  of  an  almost  spontaneous  rising  of  the  people,  with 
little  or  no  organization  or  preparation  behind  it.  I  do  not 
so  read  history.  No  doubt  the  spirit  of  the  people,  who  were, 
mind,  heart,  soul,  and  conscience,  on  the  side  of  what  they 
held  to  be  rightful  authority,  had  much  to  do  with  the  success 
of  the  struggle.  But  unquestionably  the  militia  and  minute- 
men  of  Concord  came  together  that  morning  in  obedience  to 
a  preconcerted  arrangement.  Unquestionably  the  men  of 
Lincoln,  of  Acton,  of  Bedford,  and  Carlisle,  and  of  many 
another  town,  turned  their  faces  toward  North  Bridge,  because 
such  had  been  the  previous  order.  It  would  be  far  nearer 
the  truth  to  say,  that  not  a  minute-man  was  raised,  not  an 
officer  chosen,  not  a  gun  forged,  not  a  cartridge  rolled,  not  a 
pound  of  provisions  stored  in  a  farmer's  barn,  except  in  obe 
dience  to  what  was  held  to  be  lawful  government,  resisting 
those  who  had  ceased  to  use  the  sword  to  execute  the  law, 
and  who  had  changed  it  into  a  deadly  weapon  to  slay  the  law 
in  the  house  of  its  friends.  Law  followed  "the  embattled 
farmers  "  as  they  marched  down  from  Buttrick's  Hill  to  the 
Bridge.  They  heard  the  three  signal-guns  fired  by  the 
enemy  to  summon  to  their  aid  re-enforcements.  They  saw 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  55 

the  musket-balls  of  the  British  skip  along  the  quiet  surface 
of  the  river.  They  waited  until  a  deadly  volley  had  slain 
two  of  their  bravest  before  they  fired  a  return-shot.  Why? 
Not  because  they  were  surprised,  not  because  they  were 
afraid,  not,  probably,  because  they  shrank  from  opening  a 
civil  war,  but  because  the  law,  a  solemn  thing  then  and  now 
to  a  New-England  man,  —  the  law,  which  to  them  was  the 
best  expression  in  organized  life  of  the  divine  will,  com 
manded  them  not  to  fire  until  first  they  had  been  fired  upon. 
To  my  mind,  in  all  human  history  there  is  no  more  noble 
instance  of  the  subordination  of  passion  to  duty  than  the 
silence,  until  the  lawful  order  came,  of  those  four  hundred 
muskets  at  North  Bridge.  I  cannot  understand  how  any  one 
can  read  carefully  the  records  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
Massachusetts,  and  not  see  that  the  course  of  New  England 
was  the  farthest  possible  remove  from  irregular  violence  and 
sedition ;  that  it  was  the  calm,  orderly,  resolute  defence  of 
what  was  solemnly  believed  to  be  alike  the  law  of  the  land 
and  the  law  of  God  against  the  rebellion  of  King  George  the 
Third  and  Gov.  Gage,  Col.  Smith  and  Major  Pitcairn,  his  in 
struments  of  illegality.  In  short,  as  I  read  history,  the  Revo 
lution  was  that  reverence  of  God's  proper  sovereignty  and 
his  righteous  will,  enacted  into  law,  and  brought  into  martial 
array.  It  was  the  outcome  of  that  deep  religion,  which  was 
in  Puritan  blood  modified  by  the  practical  needs  and  struggles 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years'  life  in  the  wilderness. 

The  Revolution,  therefore,  was  no  restless  throwing  off  a 
yoke  which  galled.  The  fight  at  North  Bridge  was  no  fierce 
outburst  of  revenge.  Those  eight  years  of  loss  and  great 
endurance  were  not  given  simply  for  selfish  good  of  any  kind  : 
they  were  all  parts  of  a  steady,  solemn  refusal  to  be  subject 
to  the  whims  and  caprices  of  any  man,  or  of  any  body  of  men, 
be  they  called  king  or  parliament,  and  as  steady  and  solemn 
an  acceptance  of  those  charters,  compacts,  laws,  which  were 
the  best  approach  which  mortal  wisdom  had  made  to  that 
absolutely  wise  law  of  God,  which  secures  the  welfare  of  all 


56  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

and  each.  It  was  this  —  that  the  Revolution  was  founded  not 
on  feeling,  but  on  principle  ;  that  the  forces  which  created  it, 
and  the  forces  which  sustained  it,  were  profound  moral  and 
spiritual  convictions  — which  has  made  it  a  permanent  blessing 
to  mankind.  Fifteen  years  later,  France,  in  a  storm  of  hate 
and  defiance,  rose,  burst  all  restraints,  and  levelled  in  the  dust 
the  proudest  of  European  monarchies.  She  enjoyed  a  long 
carnival  of  blood.  Princes,  nobles,  spiritual  peers,  all  who 
were  supposed  to  have  trampled  upon  the  poor,  and  made 
them  miserable,  expiated  their  real  or  supposed  crimes.  But 
there  were  no  principles  beneath  this  movement ;  and,  in  ten 
years  more,  the  people  were  back  again  under  the  power  of 
one  man.  Thirty  years  later  still,  the  Spanish  colonies,  lust 
ing  for  absolute  freedom,  intolerant  of  any  kind  of  subjection, 
achieved  their  liberty.  But  in  their  life  there  was  no  moral 
balance-wheel,  no  united,  profound,  grand  allegiance  of  the 
whole  people  to  any  thing  ;  and  presidents,  protectors,  dic 
tators,  emperors,  have  appeared  with  a  bewildering  rapidity. 
But  the  work  of  the  men  of  1775  lasted.  Says  old  Hooker, 
"  That  which  doth  assign  unto  each  thing  the  kind,  that 
which  doth  moderate  the  force  and  power,  that  which  doth 
appoint  the  form  and  measure  of  working,  the  same  we  term 
a  law."  And,  according  to  Locke,  law,  to  be  good  and  valid, 
"must  be  conformable  to  the  law  of  nature,  i.e.,  to  the  will  of 
God."  Law  as  good,  as  favorable  to  human  welfare,  as  con 
formable  to  God's  will,  as  mortals  had  achieved,  the  imperial 
majesty  of  the  law  —  that  was  the  principle  underneath  the 
Revolution.  And  to-day,  in  the  simplest  town-meeting  in  the 
smallest  of  New-England  hamlets,  you  see  the  same  principle 
triumphant,  —  the  majesty  of  law.  Without  arms,  without 
compulsion,  what  are  legal  rules  in  any  gathering,  whether  of 
cultured  or  of  uncultured  American  men.  And* the  thought 
and  hope  of  all  good  people  is,  not  to  subvert  the  law,  but 
to  perfect  and  purify  law,  and  make  it  more  and  more  the 
clear  reflection  of  the  divine  will.  So  -they  who  built  on 
great  principles  built  securely. 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  57 

That  other  considerations,  considerations  of  personal  rights 
and  of  public  and  material  welfare,  entered,  and  rightly,  into 
the  conflict,  no  person  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  period 
would  for  a  moment  deny.  That  meaner  motives,  growing 
out  of  the  selfish  and  passionate  feelings  of  the  human  heart, 
were  mingled,  as  they  always  are  mingled,  with  nobler  mo 
tives, —  that,  too,  is  certain.  But,  when  all  proper  limitations 
are  established,  it  still  remains  true  that  the  struggle  was  far 
more  one  of  conscience  than  of  interest.  The  deeper  you 
search,  the  more  thoroughly  you  will  believe  that  the  hopes  and 
aims  of  the  great  men  who  carried  the  Revolution  to  a  suc 
cessful  issue  looked  so  directly  to  the  vindication  of  the 
right,  to  the  maintenance  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  God, 
and  to  the  furtherance  of  the  true  welfare  of  God's  children, 
that  they  may  be  properly  called  religious  hopes  and  aims. 
And  therefore  it  is  no  flight  of  fancy  or  rhetoric  to  say  that 
this  old  meeting-house  —  in  which  our  fathers  transacted  so 
much  of  the  business  of  town  and  state,  which  sheltered  for 
so  many  days  the  representatives  of  struggling  freedom  in 
Massachusetts,  which  rang  with  the  impassioned  eloquence, 
or  was  stilled  by  the  strong  logic,  of  some  of  the  greatest  men 
New  England  ever  produced  —  is  proper  type  and  symbol  of 
spiritual  principles,  which  seemed  almost  to  belong  to  Puritan 
blood,  and  which,  quite  as  much  as  any  material  influences,  cre 
ated  the  Revolution,  gave  dignity  to  it,  and  made  it  successful. 

We  are  on  the  eve  of  the  first  great  centennial.  To-mor 
row,  with  roar  of  cannon,  with  song  of  bells,  with  blare  of 
martial  music,  with  the  presence  of  the  great  and  honored  of 
the  land,  with  even  files  of  disciplined  soldiery,  with  long 
civic  train,  we  shall  seek  to  emphasize  a  great  event.  It  is 
well ;  for  no  pageant  can  be  grand  enough  to  symbolize  the 
blessings  and  greatness  which  have  proceeded  out  from  the 
brave  fidelity  of  the  humble  men,  who  first,  on  the  banks  of 
yonder  quiet  stream,  offered  effectual  resistance  to  the  onset 
of  British  oppression.  To-morrow,  with  words  of  splendid 


58  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

eulogy,  with   tears  of  sincere  admiration,  we   shall  remember 
those,  who,  in  their  modesty, — 

"  little  thought  how  pure  a  light 
With  years  should  gather  round  that  day  ; 
How  love  should  keep  their  memories  bright, 
How  wide  a  realm  their  sons  should  sway." 

And  that  is  well  too.     For  they  were  men  whom  conscience 
alone  brought  into  the  field,  who  had   no  ambition,  except   to 
till   well   the   ancestral   acres,  to   walk    in    peace  their   native 
plains,  to  rear  up  their  children  in  the  fear  of  God,  and,  when 
it  was  God's  will,  to  sleep  with  their  lathers  in  the  old  burial- 
place.     But  best  of  all  we  shall  keep  the  day,  if  we  remember 
that    under  the   least  and   the  greatest  of  the   conflicts   by 
which  our  nation  came  into  existence  were  moral   principles ; 
that  our  fathers  fought   to  achieve   freedom   under  the   law, 
freedom  through    the  law,   and   freedom   chastened   and   re 
strained  by  the  law.     We  shall   be  children  of  the  fathers,  if 
we  see  to  it  that  the  law  is  to  us  what  it  was  to  the  fathers,  — 
the  best  expression  of  the  divine  will  in   the  social   state,  to* 
which  man  has  attained.     We  shall  be  children  of  the  fathers, 
if  we  keep  human   law  abreast  with  the   noblest   moral   and 
spiritual  thoughts  and  ideas  of  the  age,  and  make  it  the  clear 
record  of  man's  progress   in  divine  wisdom,  the   bright   tran 
script  of  God's  righteous  will,  the  steady  promoter  of  human 
welfare  and  happiness. 

At  the  Congregational  Trinitarian  Church,  which  is  situated  on  a 
portion  of  the  farm  formerly  owned  and  occupied  by  Ehenezer 
Hubbard,  and  near  the  place  where  the  British  soldiers  broke  open 
the  storehouse  of  Capt.  Wheeler,  and  destroyed  tne  flour,  appro 
priate  services  were  also  held. 

The  floral  decorations  were  very  attractive ;  and  an  American  flag 
ornamented  the  pulpit.  The  morning  services  were  conducted  by  Rev. 
Joseph  Cook  of  Boston,  assisted  by  the  pastor,  Rev.  Henry  M.  Grout, 
who  was  just  recovering  from  a  protracted  illness.  The  subject  of 
the  morning  discourse  was  "Our  Lord  the  World's  Lord."  It  was 
listened  to  with  great  attention  by  a' large  audience. 


SUNDAY    SERVICES.  59 

.In  the  afternoon,  the  Concord  Artillery  and  their  military  guests 
occupied  the  centre  of  the  house.  Governor  Peck  and  staff  of  Ver 
mont  were  present;  and  the  church  was  crowded.  The  Adelphi 
Quartette,  and  the  organist  who  officiated  at  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  the  morning,  took  part  in  the  exercises  here.  The  musical  exer 
cises  were  a  voluntary  on  the  organ,  anthems  and  hymns  especially 
suited  to  the  devotional  character  of  the  occasion. 

The  subject  of  the  discourse,  by  Rev.  Joseph  Cook,  was,  <4  The 
Ultimate  Results  of  Concord  Fight."  The  words  of  the  text,  from 
Joshua  ii.  i,  were,  "View  the  Land."  In  opening,  the  preacher  said, 
"When  Lafayette  held  in  his  hand  the  musket  fired  in  1775  by  Col. 
Buttrick,  at  Concord  Bridge,  he  exclaimed,  'This  is  the  alarm  gun 
of  liberty.'  The  most  thoughtful  and  patriotic  poet  of  our  own 
nation,  however,  is  alarmed  in  1875  as  to  liberty  itself,  and  calls  the 
United  States  'the  land  of  broken  promise.'  In  1813,  John  Adams 
wrote  to  Thomas  Jefferson, '  Many  hundred  years  must  roll  away 
before  we  shall  be  corrupted.  Our  pure,  virtuous,  public-spirited, 
federative  republic  will  last  forever,  govern  the  globe,  and  introduce 
the  perfection  of  man.'  Read  these  great  and  grave  words  to-day  to 
Disraeli, -to  Gladstone,  to  Carlyle,  or  even  to  John  Bright,  or  our 
own  congressional  and  municipal  investigating  committees,  and  they 
excite  a  smile.  '  As  to  America,'  said  Lord  Macaulay,  *  I  appeal  to 
the  twentieth  century.'  Hegel's  opinion  was,  that,  if  the  forests  of 
Germany  had  been  in  existence  eighty  years  ago,  the  French  Revolu 
tion  would  not  have  occurred. 

"  It  is  not  commonly  known,  even  in  cultivated  circles,  that  the 
amount  of  arable  soil  in  North  and  South  America  is  greater  than 
that  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  taken  together.  The  American 
continent,  although  less  than  half  the  size  of  the  Old  World,  yet  con 
tains  a  greater  extent  of  productive  soil.  Both  the  promise  and  the 
perils  of  our  future  are  underrated  by  the  popular  imagination."  Our 
scandalous  politics,  feeble  newspapers  (with  exceptions),  and  ineffi 
cient  churches  (with  exceptions),  were  severely  criticised.  "  Safe 
Republicanism  in  America  must  consist  of  four  things  :  I.  The  diffu 
sion  of  liberty ;  2.  The  diffusion  of  intelligence  ;  3.  The  diffusion 
of  property;  4.  The  diffusion  of  conscientiousness.  The  first  is 
the  business  of  the  government ;  the  second,  of  the  schools  ;  the  third, 
of  commerce ;  the  fourth,  of  the  church ;  but  the  fourth  is  the  most 
important  of  the  four.  Neither  the  education  nor  the  conscientious 
ness  of  the  masses  of  American  citizens  is  commensurate  with  their 
political  power.  Let  the  family,  the  press,  the  schools  join  the  church 


6O  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

in  the  diffusion  of  conscientiousness ;  and  let  the  ballot-box,  through 
civil  service  reform,  join  in  the  same  work. 

"The  times  have  not  ceased  to  be  critical.  America  is  yet  in  the 
gristle.  In  America,  he  is  not  a  Christian  who  is  not  a  patriot,  and  he 
is  not  a  patriot  who  is  not  a  Christian." 

Although  on  Saturday  and  Sunday  the  population  of  the  town 
was  more  than  doubled,  it  was  interesting  to  notice  both  on  those 
clays  and  on  the  day  of  the  celebration,  as  showing  the  depth  and 
honesty  of  the  spirit  of  patriotism  that  called  so  many  together,  that 
there  was  no  disturbance  of  that  public  peace  which  is  one  of  New 
England's  jewels. 

The  streets  of  the  village  were  thronged  with  carriages,  and  men 
and  women  on  foot,  during  the  whole  of  Sunday.  The  square  in 
front  of  the  old  meeting-house  was  densely  packed  in  the  morning 
with  citizens  from  the  neighboring  towns,  who  were  unable  to  get 
inside  to  attend  the  services,  and  every  thing  betokened  an  event  of 
unusual  importance  and  interest ;  yet  there  was  no  noise  or  disorder, 
and  the  night  of  Sunday  was  as  still  as  any  night  of  the  year. 


THE    CELEBRATIOiN 


THE    CELEBRATION. 


THE    PROCESSION. 


THE  morning  of  the  iQth  was  cold  and  windy,  the  thermometer 
indicating  20°  Fahrenheit,  much  to  the  discomfort  of  the  thou 
sands,  who,  by  a  common  impulse,  sought  by  the  various  lines 
of  railroad,  on  foot  and  in  carriages,  to  reach  Concord.  In  accord 
ance  with  the  established  programme,  a  centennial  salute  of  one 
hundred  guns,  at  sunrise,  from  a  section  of  Battery  A,  ist  Artillery, 
M.  V.  M.,  stationed  on  Nashawtuck,  or  Lee's  Hill,  opened  the  com 
memorative  exercises  of  the  day.  This  section  of  artillery  was  the 
contribution  of  the  Commonwealth  to  our  celebration,  and,  under 
orders  from  the  Governor,  it  left  Boston  about  eleven  o'clock  on  the 
night  of  Sunday,  and  arrived  in  Concord  before  daybreak.  At  pre 
cisely  eighteen  minutes  past  five  o'clock,  the  first  gun  was  fired; 
and  the  regular  succession  of  one  hundred  heavy  guns  called  early 
attention  to  the  birth  of  the  new  century  of  freedom. 

Next  in  the  order  of  the  published  programme  was  the  forming  of 
the  procession.  By  publication  in  all  the  newspapers,  by  hand-bills 
and  circulars  which  had  been  universally  distributed,  the  Chief  Mar 
shal  had  endeavored  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  every  person  who 
should  come  to  the  celebration  the  exact  spot  where  each  division 
of  the  procession  would  form,  and  its  direction  from  the  railroad  sta 
tion.  Printed  cards,  bearing  the  names  of  the  streets  in  full-faced 
type,  were  nailed  up  at  every  corner.  Guidons,  with  the  names  of 
the  towns  thereon,  were  stationed  where  the  citizens  'of  the  towns 
were  to  assemble.  Every  thing  which  ingenuity  could  suggest,  or 
activity  execute,  had  been  done  to  further  the  well-nigh  impossible 
task  of  marshalling  an  assemblage  of  perhaps  ten  thousand  persons, 
suddenly  dropped  from  railroad-cars  and  carriages,  in  a  strange  place, 
between  the  hours  of  eight  and  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  an 
April  day,  into  an  orderly,  systematic  procession. 

The  large  capacities  of  the  Fitchburg  and  Lowell  Railroads  were 
soon  tried  to  their  utmost,  and  the  vast  numbers  that  came  pouring 
into  Thoreau  Street  showed  that  the  estimate  of  an  attendance 


64  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

of  ten  thousand  persons  was  nearly  six  times  too  small.  Nor  was  it 
merely  curiosity,  or  a  desire  to  see  or  form  a  part  of  a  great  pageant, 
that  induced  so  many  persons  to  leave  their  business  on  a  day  not 
recognized  by  the  law  as  a  holiday,  on  a  day,  also,  that  was  raw  and 
uninviting,  and  at  personal  inconvenience  and  exposure  that  in  many 
instances  were  considerable,  to  be  present  in  a  small  New  England 
town  on  the  anniversary  of  such  a  fight  as  that  of  April  19,  1775. 
But  it  was  because  patriotic  memories  were  awakened;  and  the 
vast  population  that  within  one  hundred  years  has  sprung  from  those 
towns  whose  citizens  were  in  arms  on  that  day,  the  myriads  of  men 
and  women  of  every  State,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  whose 
ancestors  are  buried  in  the  little  country  graveyards  of  eastern 
Massachusetts,  felt  in  their  veins  the  blood  of  the  Revolution,  and 
knew  that  the  centennial  celebration  was  a  recognition  by  what  was 
best  in  them  of  what  was  noblest  in  their  fathers. 

It  was  through  an  under-estimate,  therefore,  of  the  strength  of 
that  sentiment,  that  a  popular  attendance  of  only  ten  thousand  was 
looked  for.  As  it  proved,  the  limit  was  the  carrying  capacity  of 
the  roads  and  railroads.  And  the  railroads  could  not  furnish  trans 
portation  for  all  who  desired  it.  From  an  early  hour  in  the  morning, 
the  stations  in  Boston  were  besieged  by  crowds.  Every  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes,  loaded  trains  were  started,  and  at  all  the  way-stations  large 
numbers  were  gathered.  The  Boston  and  Lowell  Railroad  proved 
utterly  unequal  to  its  burden ;  and  the  resources  of  the  Fitchburg 
were  barely  sufficient  to  answer  the  demand  made  on  them.  From 
eight  until  ten  o'clock,  there  was  hardly  a  moment  that  a  train  from 
one  direction  or  the  other  was  not  unloading  in  Concord.  The  cars 
of  the  Framingham  and  Lowell  Railroad  were  run  directly  to  the 
Fitchburg  station  ;  and,  in  that  manner,  men  from  Lowell,  from  Provi 
dence,  from  Hartford,  from  Fitchburg,  Worcester,  and  Boston,  arrived 
simultaneously  in  Concord.  Many,  however,  who  had  come  from  a 
distance,  many  who  were  averse  to  being  pushed  and  jostled  in  the 
strife  for  transportation,  many  old  men  and  delicate  women,  had  to 
turn  away  from  the  Boston  stations,  and  give  up  all  hopes  of  partici 
pating  in  the  celebration. 

The  Reception  Committee  had  their  tent  pitched  near  the  Fitch 
burg  station  in  Concord,  and  were  active  in  receiving  distinguished 
guests  as  they  arrived,  and  in  giving  directions  to  ail  who  were  in 
search  of  their  places  in  the  procession.  A  breakfast  was  served  in 
Agricultural  Hall,  to  which  the  veteran  military  organizations  were 
conducted  as  they  arrived. 


THE    PROCESSION.  5 

The  Governor  of  Massachusetts  with  his  staff,  under  escort  of 
the  First  Corps,  of  Cadets,  Lieut-Col.  Edmands,  reached  Concord 
at  about  half-past  nine,  and  was  greeted  with  a  salute  of  fifteen  guns. 
Soon  afterwards,  twenty-one  guns  announced  that  the  President  of 
the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet  were  taking  their  places  in  the 
line.  We  had  hoped  to  march  by  ten  o'clock,  and  to  that  end  it 
was  announced  that  the  procession  would  form  at  nine.  At  half-past 
nine,  the  several  divisions  were  nearly  complete ;  and,  to  those  who 
were  punctually  in  their  places,  the  slight  delay  in  the  biting  wind 
seemed  longer  than  it  really  was. 

Punctually  at  ten  o'clock  the  Chief  Marshal  gave  the  word,  and 
there  marched  down  Main  Street  as  magnificent  a  pageant  as  was 
ever  seen  in  New  England.  Nearly  two  miles  in  length,  compact, 
well  arranged,  containing  the  chief  national  and  state  officers,  escorted 
by  famous  military  organizations,  enlivened  by  banners  and  martial 
music,  it  marched  through  solid  masses  of  spectators,  in  the  following 
order :  — 

FIRST    DIVISION. 

Platoon  of  Boston  Police,  sixteen  in  number,  Sergeant  John  H.  Laskey  commanding. 

Medford  Band,  F.  A.  Hersey,  leader,  25  pieces. 

Fifth  Regiment  of  Infantry,  M.  V.  M.   as  Escort. 

Colonel,  Ezra  J.  Trull. 

Lieutenant-Colonel,  Charles  F.  King. 

Major,  B.  Frank  Stoddard. 

Adjutant,  Henry  G.  Jordan. 

Quartermaster,  Horace  S.  Perkins. 

Surgeon,  Edward  J.  Forster. 
Chaplain,  William  T.  Stowe. 
Paymaster,  George  D.  Putnam. 

Company  A,  Boston.  —  Captain,  John  E.  Phipps  ;  First  Lieutenant,  John  L.  Curtis  ; 
Second  Lieutenant,  George  W.  Whiting.    61  men. 

Company  B,    Somerville. —Captain,    Rudolph    Kramer;    First    Lieutenant,    William    S. 
Howe  ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Charles  K.  Brackett.     61  men. 

Company  D,  Boston.  —  Captain,  Fred.  B.  Bogan  ;  First  Lieutenant,  Michael  J.  Singleton. 

40  men. 

Company  E,  Medford. —Captain,  Warren  W.  Manning;  First  Lieutenant,  Jophamus  H. 
Whitney ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Charles  M.  Green.     61  men. 

Company  F,   Waltham. —Captain,    Leonard   C.  Lane;    First   Lieutenant,  Laroy    Brown; 
Second  Lieutenant,  G.  Frank  Frost.     54  men. 


66  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Company  H,  Boston.  -  Captain,  Joseph  M.    Foster;  First   Lieutenant,  Frank  D.  Wood- 

bury.     61  men. 
Company  I,   Hudson. -Captain,  John  F.  Dolan ;  First  Lieutenant,  Edward  L.  Powets  ; 

Second  Lieutenant,  William  O'Donnell.     58  men. 

Company  K,  Cambridge.  -  Captain,  George  A.  Keeler  ;  First  Lieutenant,  William  L.  B. 
Robinson  ;   Second  Lieutenant,  Henry  N.  Wheeler.     61  men. 

[The   Fifth   marched   in    column    of    sixteen   platoons,    Company   G  being   absent,    and 
Company  C  escorting  the  President  in  another  division.] 

Chief  Marshal,  Major-Gen.  FRANCIS  C.  BARLOW. 
Aides,  Col.  Henry  L.  Higginson,  Dr.  Edward  W.  Emerson. 

George  Keves,  Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements ;  Rev.  Grindall  Reynolds,  Chap 
lain  of  the  day;  Henry  F.  French,  the  father  of  D.  C.  French,  the  artist  of  the 

monument ;  and  Horace  Heard,  the  executor  of  Ebenezer  Hubbard. 

E.  R.  Hoar,  President  of  the  Day  ;  George  W.  Curtis,  Orator  of  the  Day  ;  James  Russell 
Lowell,  Poet  of  the  Day ;  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  chosen  to  deliver  the  adc 

of  dedication. 
Monument  Committee  and  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Metropolitan  Band  ;  Arthur  Hall,  leader. 

First  Corps  of  Cadets,  escorting  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Lieut.-Col.  Thomas  F.  Edmands  commanding. 

Major,  Charles  P.  Horton. 
Captain  and  Paymaster,  Charles  E.  Stevens. 

Surgeon,  B.  Joy  Jeffries. 

Captain  and  Acting  Adjutant,  John  D.  Parker,  jun. 

Quartermaster,  Charles  C.  Melcher. 

Captain,  William  F.  Lawrence. 

Captain,  William  E.  Perkins. 

Captain,  George  R.  Rogers. 

First  Lieutenant,  Charles  J.  Williams. 

First  Lieutenant,  William  L.  Parker. 

[The  Cadets  numbered  no  men,  and  were  accompanied  by  Cols.  C.  C.  Holmes  and  John 
Jeffries,  past  commanders  of  the  corps,  and  Adjutant-Gen.  Cunningham.] 

His  Excellency,  WILLIAM  GASTON,  Governor  of  Massachusetts; 

Col.  Edward  Wyman  and  Col.  Leverett  S.  Tuckerman,  Aides  ;  Lieut.-Col.  George  H. 

Campbell,  Military  Secretary. 

Judge    Advocate,    Gen.    Patrick    A.    Collins  ;    Col.    A.    A.    Haggett    and    Col.    Edward 
Gray,  Governor's    Aides  ;   and  Col.   Charles  W.  Wilder,   Assistant  Quartermaster- 
General  ;   Lieut.-Gov.  Knight  ;  Col.   Whitney  of  the  Executive  Council ;  Col. 
Joshua   B.   Treadwell,  Assistant    Surgeon-General ;  and   Col.  Isaac   F. 
Kingsbury,  Assistant  Adjutant-General;  Col.  George  O.  Brastow 
of  the  Executive  Council ;  and  Hon.  Charles  Endicott,  Auditor. 

Attorney-Gen.  Charles   R.   Train,   Surgeon-Gen.  William  J.   Dale,  Charles  Adams,  jun., 
Treasurer,  and  Oliver  Warner  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth. 


THE    PROCESSION.  67 

Messrs.  Couch,  Brevvster,  Leland,  and  Turner,  of  the  Executive  Council. 

Messrs.  Dunn  and  Baker  of  the   Executive  Council,  and   ex-Councillors    Milp    Hildreth 

and  F.  H.  Stickney. 

Chief  Justice  Gray,  and  Associate  Justices  Wells   and  Morton,  of  the    Supreme  Judicial 
Court;   and  Charles  Kimball,  Sheriff  of  Middlesex. 

Hon.  Charles  Devens,  jun.,  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  His  Excellency,  DANIEL  L.  CHAMBERLAIN,  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 
Judges  of  the  Superior,  Probate,  and  other  Courts. 

Col.  Charles  W.  Davis,  Aide  to  Chief  Marshal. 
American  Band  of  Boston,  Charles  Thompson  leader. 

Newburyport  Veteran  Artillery  Association,  100  men,  in  citizens'  dress,  with  chapeau  and 

black  rosette,  escorting  the  Legislature.  —  Col.  Eben  F.  Stone,  Commander  ;  Lieuts. 

Warren  Currier,   George   H.    Stevens,  R.   M.   Perley,  and  S.  Levy  ;  W.  P. 

Saimders,   Chief    of    Staff;    J.   P.   Evans,  Adjutant;    George   Creasy, 

Quartermaster's  Sergeant ;  A.  W.  Thompson,  Orderly  Sergeant  ; 

and   Joseph    H.    Currier   and   Charles    Noyes,  Standard- 

Bearers. 

[Accompanying  the  Veterans  were   citizens   of   Newburyport,  including  Mayor  Atkinson, 
Ex-Mayors  Kelly,  Boardman,  and  Graves  ;  Mr.  W.  H.  Huse,  Collector  of  the   Port ; 

and  other  gentlemen.] 

Senators  Harwood  and  Edson,  and  Representatives  Blunt,  Tompkins,  Brewer,  Fitzgerald, 
and  Burr,  of  the  Legislative  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  President  of  the  Senate  ;  and  Hon.  John  E.  Sanford,  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

Members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts,  to  the  number  of 
about  200,  marching  in  column,  four  abreast. 

SECOND    DIVISION. 

Col.  Theodore  Lyman,  Chief  of  Division. 

United  States  Marine  Band  of  Washington,  D.C.,  45  men,  in  scarlet  uniform,  in   charge 
of  Lieut.  Zielin  of  the  United  States  Marine  Corps. 

Concord  Artillery,  Company  C,  Fifth  Regiment,  M.  V.  M.,  60  men.     Captain,  George  P. 
How ;  First  Lieutenant,  A.  B.  C.  Dakin ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Richard  F.  Barrett. 

[The  Artillery  bore  the  flag  of  the  old  Forty-seventh  Regiment,  M.  V.  M.,  in  which  they 
served  during  the  war,  and  acted  as  special  escort  to  the  President.] 

Barouche  drawn  by  four  bay  horses,  containing 
His    Excellency,    ULYSSES    S.    GRANT, 

President  of  the   United  States  ; 

Hon.  HENRY  WILSON,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States; 

Hon.  Hamilton  Fish,  Secretary  of  State  ;  and  Gen.   Babcock,  Military  Secretary  to  the 

President. 

[Flanking  the  barouche  was  a  guard  of  twelve  of  the  Concord  Artillery.] 


68  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Hon.  William  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War';  Hon.  George  M.  Robeson,  Secretary  of 
the  Navy ;  Hon.  Columbus   Delano,   Secretary   of  the    Interior ;    Hon.  Mar 
shall  Jewell,  Postmaster-General. 

Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  Speaker  of  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives  ;  Hon. 

George  S.  Boutwell,   United    States    Senator  from   Massachusetts  ;    Hon. 

Bainbridge  Wadleigh,  United  States  Senator  from  New  Hampshire  ; 

George  W.  Childs,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia. 

Hon.  John  H.  Burleigh,  Member  of  Congress  from  Maine  ;  Hon.  Charles  O'Neill,  Member 

of  Congress  from   Pennsylvania  ;  Hon.  Stephen  W.  Kellogg,  Member  of 

Congress  from  Connecticut;  Hon.  M.  E.  Phinney  of  New  York; 

Col.  Henry  S.  Russell,  Aide  to  Chief  Marshal. 

Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes,  United  States  Senator  from   Massachusetts  ;  Hon.  Chester   W. 

Chapin,  Hon.  Kufus  S.  Frost,  Hon.  John  K.  Tarbox,  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar, 

Hon.  B.  W.  Harris,  and  Hon.  Charles  P.  Thompson,  Members  of 

Congress  from  Massachusetts  ;  and  W.  W.  Rice,  Esq., 

of  Worcester. 

Hon.  George  F.  Shepley,  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  First 

Circuit ;  Hon.  John  Lowell,  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States 

for  the  District  of  Massachusetts ;  Hon.  Daniel  Clark,  Judge  of  the 

District  Court  of  the  United    States   for   the    District   of  New 

Hampshire  ;  Roland  G.  Usher,  United  States  Marshal ; 

Hon.  George  P.  Sanger,  United  States  Attorney  ; 

John  M.  Clark,  Sheriff  of  Suffolk. 

Major-Gen  Benham  U.  S.  A.  ;  Commodore  Edward  T.  Nichols  U.  S.  N. ;  Brevet  Major-Gen. 

Nelson  A.  Miles,  U.  S.  A. ;    Capt.  R.  W.  Livermore,  U.  S.  Engineer  Corps  ; 

Commander  George  Brown,  U.  S.  N. ;  Lieut.  F.  M.  Wise,  U.  S.  N., 

of  the  staff  of  Vice-Admiral  Rowan.* 


THIRD   DIVISION. 

Col.  William  B.  Storer,  Chief  of  Division. 
Chandler's  Band  of  Portland,  Me.,  22  men. 

Portland  Mechanic  Blues,  50  men,  Capt.  Charles  J.  Pennell,  escorting 
His  Excellency,  NELSON  DINGLEY,  Jun.,  Governor  of  Maine,  and  staff. 

Gen  Joshua  L.  Chamberlin,  commanding  the  Maine  Volunteer  Militia ;  Gen.  George  L. 
Beal,  Chief  of  Staff ;  Gen.  John  Marshall  Brown,  Inspector  of  First  Division  ; 
Gen.  Joseph  S.  Smith ;  Col.  A.  M.  Benson,  Quartermaster  of  First  Divis 
ion  ;   and  Lieut. -Cols.  A.  W.  Bradbury  and  George  S.  Follansbee, 
Aides-de-Camp  ;  Roswell  M.  Richardson,  Mayor  of 
Portland  ;  Hon.  B.  Kingsbury,  jun.,  Ex-Mayor 
of  Portland  ;  Adjutant  Thomas  A.  Rob 
erts,  formerly  colonel  of  the 
Seventeenth  Maine  Regiment ;  Lieut.  Henry  A.  Gray. 

Manchester  Cornet  Band,  26  men. 

Amoskeag  Veterans  of  Manchester,  N.H.,  100  men,  Major  George  C.  Gilmore,  escorting 
His  Excellency,  JAMES  A.  WESTON,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire,  and  staff. 


THE    PROCESSION.  69 

Ex-Govs.  Smyth,  Stearns,  and  Harriman,  and  Hon.  Person  C.  Cheney,  of  New  Hampshire. 
St.  Albans  Brigade  Band,  22  men. 

Ransom  Guards  of  St.  Albans,  Vt.,  60  men,  Capt.  J.  W.  Newton,  escorting  His 
Excellency,  ASAHEL  PECK,  Governor  of  Vermont,  and  staff. 

Judge  Luke  P.  Poland,  Ex-Member  of  Congress  from  Vermont ;  Hon.  J.  H.  Page,  Treas 
urer;   Dr.  George  Nichols,  Secretary  of  State;   Ex-Gov.  J.  Gregory  Smith 

of  Vermont  ; 

Gen.    William   Wells ;    Hon.    Worthington    C.    Smith,    Ex-Member    of    Congress    from 
Vermont ;  Gen.  John  L.  Barstow  of  Burlington  ;  and  Gen.  Bigelow  of  St.  Albans. 

Capt.  John  F.  Stark,  Aide  to  Chief  Marshal. 
First  Light  Infantry  Veteran  Fife  and  Drum  Corps,  12  men. 

First    Light    Infantry   Veteran    Association    of    Providence,  R.I.,  'Col.    W.    W.    Brown 
commanding  ;  Major-Gen.  Ambrose  E.  Burnside,  Major  ;  no  men  and  25  honorary 

members,  escorting 

His  Honor,  Lieut.-Gov.  CHARLES  C.  VAN  ZANDT,  acting  Governor  of  Rhode  Island, 

and  staff. 

Fife  and  Drum  Corps  of  the  Putnam  Phalanx. 

Putnam  Phalanx  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  122  men,  Major  Henry  Kennedy,  escorting 
His  Excellency,  CHARLES  R.  INGERSOLL,  Governor  of  Connecticut,,  and  staff. 


FOURTH    DIVISION. 


Col   Charles  L.  Peirson,  Chief  of  Divison. 

American  Brass  Band,  of  Lowell,  22  men ;  Henry  White,  veteran  drummer  of 
Mexican  War,  aged  seventy-three  years. 

Old  Sixth  Regiment  Association,  eight  companies,  Lieut.-Col.  B.  F.  Watson,  commanding. 
[The  Association  carried  the  old  flags  borne  by  the  regiment  in  1861,  and  the 
occasion  was  of  double  interest  to  it,  being  the  fourteenth  anni 
versary  of  the  bloody  march  through  Baltimore.] 

Nathan  Warren  of  Weston,  a  soldier  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  Elijah  W.  Stearns  of  Bedford. 

[Mr.  Warren,  who  was  eighty  years  old,  wore  his  old   1812   military  cap,  a  sort  of 

helmet  made  of  leather,  with  a  high  red  feather  plume  tipped  with  white.] 

The  Massachusetts  Society  of  the  Order  of  the  Cincinnati,  25  members,  Admiral   Henry 

Knox  Thatcher,  President. 

The  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  University. 

The  Overseers  of  Harvard  University. 

The  Faculty  of  Harvard  College. 

Members  of  the  Press. 

The  Standing  Committee  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association. 
The  Council  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


7Q  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Committee  from  the  New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Society! 

Society  of  the  old  Guard  of  the  war  of  1812,  Col.  Gus'tavus  B.  Hutchinson,  President  ; 

Col  Thomas  M.  Wheeler  and  Col.  George  M.  Barnard,  jun.,  Aides  to  Chief  Marshal. 

Acton  Brass  Band,  28  pieces. 

Acton  Minute-Men  83  men,  Capt.  Aaron  C.   Handley  [with  banner  bearing  the 
inscription,  "Acton  Minute-Men,  April  19,  1875."     On  the  reverse, 

"  I  haven't  a  man  that  is  afraid  to  go."  —  CAPT.  DAVIS], 
escorting  the  official  delegations  from  the  following  cities  and  towns  :  — 

Acton,  Bedford,  Billerica,  Carlisle,  Chelmsford,  Lincoln,  Littleton,  Stow,  Sudbury,  West- 
ford,  Arlington,    Belmont,    Boston,    Boxboro',    Brookline,   Burlington,   Cam 
bridge,    Charlestown,    Declham,    Everett,    Framingham,    Lowell,     Lynn, 
Lynnfield,  Maynard,  Medford,  Melrose,  Needham,  Newton,  Norwood, 
Peabody,  Pepperell,  Reading,  Somerville,  Wakefield,  Waltham, 
Watertown,  Wayland,  Weston,  Winchester,  Woburn. 

[Accompanying  the  Acton  delegation,  in  a  carriage,  were  two  of  the  grandchildren  of  Capt. 

Isaac  Davis,— Amos  W.    Fitch   of  Cattaraugus   County,    New   York,   aged 

seventy-one  ;  and  Mrs.  Simon  Davis  of  Acton,  aged  seventy-eight.     The 

Wayland  delegation  was  preceded  by  the  Cochituate  Brass  Band, 

24  pieces,  and  a  company  of  light  infantry,  80  men, 

Capt.  D.  W.  Ricker.] 

FIFTH    DIVISION. 

Col.  Charles  E.  Fuller,  Chief  of  Division. 

Capt.  James  Thompson,  Capt.  William  E.  Wilson,  and  Capt.  E.  S.  Barrett,  Aides. 

American  Brass  Band  of  Providence,  R  1 ,  28  men. 

Marshal,  Edward  J.  Bartlett. 

Aides,  William  Wheeler,  Arthur  Mills,  Nathan  B.  Smith,  James  L.  Whitney,  and  William 

H.  Brown. 

Citizens  of  Concord,  with  banner  of  heavy  white  silk  with  inscription,   "  1775,  Concord, 
1875,"  and  on  reverse  a  large  pine-tree. 

Platoon  of  Salem  Police. 
Salem  Brass  Band,  21  men. 

Second    Corps    of    Cadets,   87    men,    Lieut. -Col     A.    P.    Brown    commanding,    escorting 
Hon.  Henry  L.  Williams,  Mayor,  and  the  City  Government  of  Salem. 

Citizens  of  Salem. 

Marshal,  Capt.  Cyrus  Page. 

• 

Flag  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years  old,  which  was  used  in  the  French  and   Indian 
wars,  and  was  carried  at  Concord  April  19,  1775,  by  the  Bedford  Minute-Men. 
It  has  ever  since  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Page  family.     It  bears 
the  device  of  an  arm  with  a  drawn  sword,  and  fourteen  cannon- 
balls,  with  the  inscription  "  Vincere  autmorire."    Appended  to 
this  flag  was  the  legend,  "  Capt.  Jonathan  Wilson,  killed 
April  19,  1775 —  HC  cued  f°r  us  and  Liberty." 
Citizens  of  Bedford. 


THE    PROCESSION.  J  \ 

• 

Citizens  of  Billerica. 
Dunstable  Cornet  Band,  mounted,  18  pieces. 

Company  F,  Spaulding  Light  Cavalry,  of  Chelmsford,  90  men,  Capt.  Christopher  Roby 

commanding,  escorting 

Citizens  of  Carlisle,  under  the  direction  of  Marshal    N.  A.  Taylor,    and   with   a  banner 

bearing  the  inscription,  "  Joseph  Spaulding  of  Carlisle  fired  the  first  gun  at 

Concord,  April  19,  1775.     That  shot  was  heard  round  the  world." 

Citizens  of  Lincoln. 
Marshal,  E.  B.  Cobleigh. 

Citizens  of  Boxboro',  with  banner,  on  which  was  inscribed,  "  Luther  Blanchard,  wounded  by 
the  first  shot  fired  by  the  British." 

Marshal,  L.  P.  True. 

Citizens  of  Everett. 

Marshall,  George  W.  Tuttle. 

Citizens  of  Littleton  with  banner. 
Marshal,  J.  P.  Hildreth. 

Citizens  of  Stow,  with  banner  inscribed  with,    "The  Fathers  came  in  1775:  the  Sons  are 

here  to-day,  April  19,  1875." 

Drum  Corps. 

Manchester,  N.H.,  High  School  Cadets,  F.  H.  Challis,  Captain,  46  guns. 
Cavalcade  of  citizens  of  Sudbury,  under  command  of  Capt.  George  Butterfield. 
Caravan  drawn  by  six  horses,  containing  twenty-eight  aged  citizens  of  Sudbury. 

Marshal,  Luther  Prescott. 
Assistants,  George  T.  Day  and  J.  M.  Chamberlain. 

Citizens  of  Westford  with   banner  inscribed  "Lieut.-Col.    Robinson,  Old    North   Bridge, 
April  19,  1775.      His  Townsmen,  April  19,  1875." 

Citizens  of  Arlington. 

Marlboro'  Brass  Band. 

Henry  Wilson  Post  86,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Maynard;  Commander,  E.  E.  Haynes. 

Citizens  of  Maynard. 
Marshal   S.  A.    Ranlett. 

Citizens  of  Melrose. 

Citizens   of    Medford. 

Citizens    of    Brookline. 

Citizens   of    Cambridge. 

Citizens  of  Dedham. 

Citizens  of  Lowell. 

Citizens  of  Need  ham. 

Marshal  George  J.  Curtis. 

First  Regiment  Band,  30  men. 


72  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Claflin  Drum  Corps,  of  Newton. 

Cla*flin  Guard,  Company  C,  First  Regiment  M.  V.  M.  ;  A.  C.  Walworth,  Captain  ;  75  men, 

escorting 
Mayor  and  City  Government  of  Newton. 

Citizens  of  Newton. 
Reimbach's  Band,  20  men. 

Post  29,  G.  A.  R.  of   Waltham  ;  G.  M.  Hudson,  Commander  ;  75  men,  escorting 
Citizens  of  Waltham  under  the  direction  of  Marshal  E.  Stearns. 

Caravan  containing  ladies  and  gentlemen  of   Waltham  dressed  in  costume  of  ye   olden 
time.     The  caravan  bore  the  inscription,  "  Dulce  et  decorum  est pro  patria  mori" 

Citizens  of  Watertown. 
Citizens  of  Norwood. 
Citizens  of  Peabody. 
Citizens  of  Pepperell. 

Drum  Corps. 

Company  of  Coniinentallers  from  Weston,  Capt.  F.  W.  Bigelow,  50  men. 

Natick  Brass  Band. 

Citizens   of   Natick. 

Saxonville  Brass  Band. 

Marshal,  Gen.  George  H.  Gordon. 

Post  142  G.  A.  R.  of  South  Framingham,  60  men. 

Citizens  of  Framingham,  140  men. 


This  division,  numbering  about  twenty-five  hundred  men,  closed  the 
procession.  The  march  was  rapid  on  account  of  the  cold ;  and  it  was 
fortunate  for  the  spectators  who  covered  sidewalk  and  roadside,  and 
filled  fences,  porches,  and  windows,  and,  in  some  instances,  were  sta 
tioned  even  on  the  housetops,  that  the  long  column  of  six  thousand  or 
more  was  moved  punctually  and  with  speed.  The  several  divisions 
were  greeted  with  cheer  upon  cheer.  The  President  and  Cabinet,  the 
admirable  precision  of  the  Ransom  Guards,  the  Continental  uniform  of 
the  Putnam  Phalanx,  the  unexpected  appearance  of  Major-Gen.  Burn- 
side  marching  on  foot  with  the  First  Light  Infantry  veterans,  the  old 
Sixth  veterans  of  the  late  war,  the  Acton  Minute-Men,  and  several 
of  the  town  delegations,  gay  with  banners  and  music,  were  each  in 
turn,  all  along  the  line,  greeted  with  prolonged  and  renewed  applause. 

It  had  been  intended  to  march  through  Walden,  Heywood,  and 
Lexington  Streets,  round  the  site  of  the  mill-pond  into  which  the 
stores  and  ammunition  were  thrown  by  the  British,  and  past  the  old 


THE    PROCESSION.  73 

meeting-house;  but  in  accordance  with  the  decision,  that,  if  necessary, 
the  route  should  be  shortened,  that  portion  was  omitted.  This  was  a 
disappointment  to  some  three  or  four  thousand  persons  who  had 
assembled  on  those  streets  to  see  the  procession  pass ;  but  the  change 
seemed  unavoidable,  as  it  was  of  prime  necessity  that  the  hours 
allotted  to  each  of  the  various  exercises  of  the  day  should  be  strictly 
adhered  to,  and  only  by  the  punctuality  of  starting,  and  the  consum 
mate  skill  of  the  Chief  Marshal  in  conducting  the  procession,  were 
we  enabled  to  carry  through  the  whole  programme  for  the  day  without 
any  delays. 

The.  whole  route  was  profusely  decorated.  The  Committee  had 
caused  lines  of  flags  and  streamers  to  be  thrown  at  frequent  intervals 
across  the  streets ;  the  houses  were  ornamented,  according  to  the 
taste  of  the  owners,  with  bunting,  flags,  and  mottoes  ;  and  the  whole 
appearance  was  that  of  an  occasion  of  great  triumph  and  rejoicing. 
"  So  gaily  decked  a  town,"  said  the  Boston  Journal  of  the  next  morn 
ing,  "  was  never  before  seen  in  the  Commonwealth."  We  cannot 
give  space,  however,  to  any  minute  description  of  the  decorations  on 
dwellings  and  public  buildings.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Main  Street, 
Lexington  Street,  Walden  Street,  and  Monument  Street  were  fairly 
ablaze  with  festoons  and  color ;  and  many  houses  not  on  the  line  of 
march  were  dressed  in  honor  of  the  day. 

As  the  head  of  the  procession  reached  the  monument  grounds, 
the  Fifth  Regiment  marched  to  the  right,  and,  facing  to  the  front, 
saluted  the  column  as  it  passed  through  Monument  Avenue,  past  the 
old  monument,  and  the  graves  of  the  two  British  soldiers  (over  which 
the  British  ensign  hung  at  halfmast),  and  across  the  bridge.  A  slight 
halt,  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Monument  Committee  unveiled  the 
statue ;  and  with  as  little  attendant  ceremony  as  when,  one  hundred 
years  before,  on  that  spot  his  prototype  proclaimed  himself  to  his 
countrymen  and  to  the  world,  the  emblematic'  Minute-man  stood 
forth  to  command  forever  the  admiration  of  men. 

From  the  bridge  to  the  high  ground  beyond  is  a  march  of  only  a 
few  rods ;  and,  at  about  eleven  o'clock,  enough  of  the  procession  had 
entered  the  tent  to  form,  with  those  admitted  before  its  arrival,  an 
audience  some  four  thousand  in  number. 

The  tent  was  capable  of  holding  six  thousand  persons,  and  had 
been  decorated  with  flags  and  streamers.  A  few  seats  were  placed  in 
front,  near  the  platform,  for  ladies  :  the  rest  of  the  audience  stood. 
The  platform  was  raised  about  two  feet  from  the  ground,  and  was 


74  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

supplied  with  seats  for  two  hundred  persons.  So  many  persons,  other 
than  the  dignitaries  for  whom  it  was  intended,  crowded  upon  the 
platform  as  to  make  sitting,  except  for  a  very  few,  impossible. 

The  rear  of  the  column  had  scarcely  reached  the  square  in  the 
middle  of  the  town,  when  the  exercises  in  the  tent  began. 

The  audience  was  increased  to  the  full  capacity  of  the  tent  by  addi 
tions  from  the  fifth  division  of  the  procession  ;  and  multitudes  who 
were  unable  to  approach  near  enough  to  hear  the  speakers,  stood  in 
the  sun,  sheltered  on  the  north  by  the  canvas,  and  tried  to  keep 
themselves  comfortable. 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  ORATION  TENT. 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  ORATION  TENT. 


Ebenezer  Rockwood  Hoar,  the  President  of  the  Day,  called  the 
assemblage  to  order,  and  said, — 

FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  In  this  solemn  hour,  when  the  nation 
enters  upon  its  second  century,  on  the  spot  which  was  its  birthplace,  let  us 
reverently  ask  God  to  be  with  us,  as  he  was  with  our  fathers. 

Rev.  Grindall  Reynolds,  the  Chaplain  of  the  Day,  then  offered  the 
following 

PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  Giver  of  every  good,  from  whose  kind 
providence  every  blessing  and  joy,  all  honor,  all  greatness, 
and  all  success,  do  proceed,  we  praise  and  magnify  thy  holy 
name.  We  rejoice  in  this  bright,  beautiful  morning,  which 
smiles  upon  us,  as  we  meet  to  remember  the  great,  pure,  and 
honorable  deeds  which  have  made  this  spot  sacred. 

We  rejoice,  in  this  great  presence,  that  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  this  town,  from  the  east  and  from  the  west,  have 
gathered  together  to  refresh  heart  and  soul  by  tearful  remem 
brance  and  by  glad  thanksgiving.  We  rejoice  in  the  pres 
ence  of  this  great  multitude,  who  have  come  up  hither  from 
all  the  towns  and  states  of  a  great  and  free  country,  which 
has  grown  up  since  the  day  we  commemorate.  We  rejoice 
in  the  presence  of  these  citizen  soldiers,  representatives  of 
the  men  who  came  forth  from  farm-houses,  from  counting- 
rooms,  from  all  the  places  of  human  duty  and  labor,  to  offer 
up  their  lives  a  sacrifice  to  liberty. 

We  rejoice  in  the  presence  of  those  who  have  been  called 
to  rule  over  this  country,  in  the  presence  of  him  who  is  the 
chief  magistrate  of  this  great  nation,  and  of  all  who,  in  their 


78  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

various  places,  seek  to  do  their  part  in  executing  the  laws,  in 
promoting  the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  in  building  this 
nation  up  to  a  greater  glory  and  to  a  purer  righteousness. 
We  thank  thee  for  the  memories  which  we  cherish  of  the 
plain,  simple  men,  who,  not  for  any  worldly  honors,  but  for 
conscience'  sake,  and  God's  sake,  confronted  the  enemy  in 
that  hour  of  fiery  trial. 

And,  as  we  gather  to  deepen  and  make  sacred  these  recol 
lections  of  their  courage  and  sacrifice,  we  rejoice  that  thy 
goodness  has  blessed  their  toils,  and  from  a  little  people  built 
us  up  to  be  a  great  nation.  With  hearts  full  of  gratitude, 
we  bow,  and  say,  "  Not  unto  us  the  glory,  but  unto  thy  great 
name,  O  Lord  of  Hosts."  Prepare  our  hearts  for  the  words 
which  shall  be  spoken  to-day,  for  the  eloquent  utterances 
which  the  memories  and  the  hopes  of  the  hour  shall  call 
forth.  Prepare  us  for  the  sacred  influences  which  shall  steal 
into  our  hearts,  that,  when  this  day  is  over,  we  may  return  to 
our  homes,  here  or  in  distant  places,  to  do  our  duty,  to  be 
good  citizens,  honestly  and  nobly  to  fill  our  places  in  the 
world.  And  as  thy  blessing  comes  to  us  in  the  beauty  of 
this  morning,  may  it  be  with  us  throughout  the  day,  and  may 
it  go  with  us  to  our  homes.  We  ask  and  offer  all  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 

The  President  of  the  Day  then  said,— 

In  the  presence  of  the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States, 
attended  by  the  Cabinet,  in  the  presence  of  the  Governor,  the  Executive 
Council,  and  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  presence  of  the  Gov 
ernor  of  each  of  the  New  England  states,  we  have  to-day  dedicated  a 
statue  to  the  memory  of  the  first  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  upon  the  spot 
where  the  first  order  was  given  to  the  soldiers  of  the  people  to  fire  upon 
the  soldiers  of  the  king.  In  appropriate  notice  of  that  act,  you  will  be 
addressed  for  a  few  moments  by  Mr.  Emerson. 

Mr.  Emerson  was  received  with  great  applause,  after  which  he 
delivered  the  following  :  — 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT. 


ADDRESS. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  Ebenezer  Hubbard,  a  farmer  who 
-inherited  land  in  this  village  on  which  the  British  troops 
committed  depredation,  and  who  had  a  deep  interest  in  the 
history  of  the  raid,  erected,  many  years  ago,  a  flagstaff  on  his 
ground,  and  never  neglected  to  hoist  the  stars  and  stripes  on 
the  Nineteenth  of  April,  and  the  Fourth  of  July.  It  grieved 
him  deeply  that  yonder  monument,  erected  by  the  town  in 
1836,  should  have  been  built  on  the  ground  on  which  the 
enemy  stood  in  the  Concord  Fight,  instead  of  on  that  which 
the  Americans  occupied ;  and  he  bequeathed  in  his  will  one 
thousand  dollars  to  the  town  of  Concord,  on  condition  that 
a  monument  should  be  erected  on  the  identical  ground  occu 
pied  by  our  minute-men  and  militia  on  that  day;  and  an 
additional  sum  of  six  hundred  dollars,  on  the  condition  that 
the  town  should  build  a  foot-bridge  across  the  river,  on  the 
site  where  the  old  bridge  stood  in  1775.  The  late  Mr.  Sted- 
man  Buttrick  having  given  the  necessary  piece  of  land  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  the  town  accepted  the  legacy 
of  Mr.  Hubbard,  built  the  bridge,  and  employed  Daniel  C. 
French  to  prepare  a  statue  to  be  erected  on  the  specified 
spot.  Meanwhile  the  United  States  Congress  gave  to  this 
town  ten  bronze  cannon  to  furnish  the  artist  with  fit  materi 
al  to  complete  his  work.  The  finished  statue  is  before  you  : 
it  was  approved  by  the  town,  and  to-day  it  speaks  for  itself. 
The  sculptor  has  rightly  conceived  the  proper  emblems  of 
the  patriot  farmer,  who,  at  the  morning  alarm,  left  his  plough 
to  grasp  his  gun.  He  has  built  no  dome  over  his  work,  be 
lieving  that  blue  sky  makes  the  best  canopy.  The  statue  is 
the  first  serious  work  of  our  young  townsman,  who  is  now  in 
Italy  to  pursue  his  profession. 


8O  THE    CONCOKD    CENTENNIAL. 

In  the  year  1775,  we  had  many  enemies  and  many  friends 
in    England  ;  but  our  one  benefactor  was    King  George  the 
Third.     The   time  had  arrived  for   the  political  severance  of 
America,  that   it   might   play   its  part   in   the   history  of  this 
globe;  and  the  inscrutable  Divine  Providence  gave  an  insane 
king    to    England.     In    the    resistance    of   the    colonies,   he 
alone  was  immovable  on  the  question  offeree.     England  was 
so  dear  to   us,   that 'the   colonies   could    only  be   absolutely- 
united  by  violence   from  England ;  and   only  one  man  could 
compel  the  resort  to  violence.     So  the  king  became   insane. 
Parliament  wavered  ;   Lord  North  wavered  ;   all  the  ministers 
wavered ;    but  the   king  had   the   insanity  of  one  idea.     He 
was  immovable,  he  insisted  on  the   impossible:  so   the   army 
was  sent,  America  was  instantly  united,  and  the  nation  born. 
On   the    i Qth   of  April,  eight  hundred   soldiers   with   hostile 
purpose   were   sent  hither  from   Boston  :  on  their  way,   they 
made  the  previous  attack  on  Lexington,  then  continued  their 
march  hither  to  search  for  and  capture  military  stores.    Three 
companies  were  left  at  this  bridge,  two  of  which  were  drawn 
back  towards  the  hill  close  behind   us.     The   number  of  our 
own  militia  companies  is  believed  to  have   been   from    two 
hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  men. 

In  some  memorable  events  in  history,  Nature  has  seemed  to 
sympathize  with  Man.  We  mark  in  the  rude  air  and  the  still 
brown  fields  of  this  morning  the  slow  departure  of  winter; 
but  on  the  same  clay  of  the  year  1775,  a  rare  forwardness  of 
the  spring  is  recorded,  marked  by  the  fact  that  "the  rye 
waved  on  the  igth  of  April."  Shall  we  believe  that  the 
patriotism  of  the  people  was  so  hot,  that  it  melted  the  snow? 

We  gladly  see  among  us  this  morning  the  representatives 
of  Acton,  Bedford,  Lincoln,  and  Carlisle,  four  towns  once  in 
cluded  in  our  town  limits,  whose  citizens  were  mindful  of 
their  mother-town,  and  risked  their  lives  for  her  on  the  mem 
orable  day  we  celebrate.  Isaac  Davis  of  Acton  was  the  first 
martyr;  Abner  Hosmer  of  Acton,  the  next.  In  all  noble 
action,  we  say  'tis  only  the  first  step  that  costs. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  8 1 

Who  will  carry  out  the  rule  of  right  must  take  his  life  in 
his  hand. 

We  have  no  need  to  magnify  the  facts.  Only  two  of  our 
men  were  killed  at  the  bridge,  and  four  others  wounded. 
But  here  the  British  army  was  first  fronted,  and  driven  back  ; 
and  if  only  two  men,  or  only  one  man,  had  been  slain,  it  was 
the  first  victory.  The  thunderbolt  falls  on  an  inch  of  ground; 
but  the  light  of  it  fills  the  horizon.  The  British  instantly 
retreated.  We  had  no  electric  telegraph  ;  but  the  news  of 
this  triumph  of  the  farmers  over  the  King's  troops  flew 
through  the  country,  to  New  York,  to  Philadelphia,  to  Ken 
tucky,  to  the  Carolinas,  with  speed  unknown  before,  and 
ripened  the  colonies  to  inevitable  decision. 

This  sharp  beginning  of  real  war  was  followed,  sixty  days 
later,  by  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill;  then  by  General  Wash 
ington's  arrival  in  Cambridge,  and  the  raising  of  his  redoubts 
on  Dorchester  Heights.  In  ten  months  and  twenty-five  days 
from  the  death  of  Isaac  Davis  and  Abner  Hosmer,  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  vessels  loaded  with  General  Howe  and  his 
army  (eight  thousand  men),  with  all  their  effects,  sailed  out 'of 
Boston  Harbor  never  to  return.  It  is  a  proud  and  tender 
story.  I  challenge  any  lover  of  Massachusetts  to  read  the 
fifty-ninth  chapter  of  Bancroft's  History*  without  tears  of 
joy. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Emerson's  address,  the  President  of  the 
Day  said,  — 

"  FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  We  have  the  pleasure  to-day,  not  announced  before 
hand,  of  the  presence  of  this  our  Middlesex  County  poet,  the  poet  of  Cam 
bridge  and  Concord  ;  and  I  introduce  to  you,  with  great  delight,  James 
Russell  Lowell." 


*  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  viii.  chap.  li.r. 


82  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Mr.  Lowell  then  read  the  following  :  — 


ODE. 


WHO  cometh  over  the  hills, 

Her  garments  with  morning  sweet, 

The  dance  of  a  thousand  rills 

Making  music  before  her  feet  ? 

Her  presence  freshens  the  air  ; 

Sunshine  steals  light  from  her  face  ; 

The  leaden  footstep  of  Care 

Leaps  to  the  tune  of  her  pace, 

Fairness  of  all  that  is  fair, 

Grace  at  the  heart  of  all  grace, 

Sweetener  of  hut  and  of  hall, 

Bringer  of  life  out  of  nought, 

Freedom,  oh,  fairest  of  all 

The  daughters  of  Time  and  Thought ! 


n. 

She  cometh,  cometh  to  day  : 
Hark  !  hear  ye  not  her  tread, 
Sending  a  thrill  through  your  clay, 
Under  the  sod  there,  ye  dead, 
Her  nurselings  and  champions? 
Do  ye  not  hear,  as  she  comes, 
The  bay  of  the  deep-mouthed  guns, 
The  gathering  buzz  of  the  drums  ? 
The  bells  that  called  ye  to  prayer, 
How  wildly  they  clamor  on  her, 
Crying,  "  She  cometh  !  prepare 
Her  to  praise  and  her  to  honor, 
That  a  hundred  years  ago 
Scattered  here  in  blood  and  tears 
Potent  seeds  wherefrom  should  grow 
Gladness  for  a  hundred  years  ? " 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  83 

III. 

Tell  me,  young  men,  have  ye  seen 

Creature  of  diviner  mien 

For  true  hearts  to  long  and  cry  for, 

Manly  hearts  to  live  and  die  for  ? 

What  hath  she  that  others  want  ? 

Brows  that  all  endearments  haunt, 

Eyes  that  make  it  sweet  to  dare, 

Smiles  that  glad  untimely  death, 

Looks  that  fortify  despair, 

Tones  more  brave  than  trumpet's  breath  ;  t 

Tell  me,  maidens,  have  ye  known 

Household  charm  more  sweetly  rare, 

Grace  of  woman  ampler  blown, 

Modesty  more  debonair, 

Younger  heart  with  wit  full  grown  ? 

Oh  for  an  hour  of  my  prime, 

The  pulse  of  my  hotter  years, 

That  I  might  praise  her  in  rhyme 

Would  tingle  your  eyelids  to  tears, 

Our  sweetness,  our  strength,  and  our  star, 

Our  hope,  our  joy,  and  our  trust, 

Who  lifted  us  out  of  the  dust, 

And  made  us  whatever  we  are  ! 


IV. 

Whiter  than  moonshine  upon  snow 

Her  raiment  is,  but  round  the  hem 

Crimson  stained;  and,  as  to  and  fro 

Her  sandals  flash,  we  see  on  them, 

And  on  her  instep  veined  with  blue, 

Flecks  of  crimson,  on  those  fair  feet, 

High-arched,  Diana-like,  and  fleet, 

Fit  for  no  grosser  stain  than  dew  : 

Oh,  call  them  rather  chrisms  than  stains, 

Sacred  and  from  heroic  veins  ! 

For,  in  the  glory-guarded  pass, 

Her  haughty  and  far-shining  head 

She  bowed  to  shrive  Leonidas 

With  his  imperishable  dead  ; 

Her,  too,  Morgarten  saw, 

Where  the  Swiss  lion  fleshed  his  icy  paw ; 


THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

She  followed  Cromwell's  quenchless  stir 

Where  the  grim  Puritan  tread 

Shook  Marston,  Nasby,  and  Dunbar  : 

Yea,  on  her  feet  are  dearer  dyes 

Yet  fresh,  nor  looked  on  with  untearful  eyes. 


v. 


Our  fathers  found  her  in  the  woods 

Where  Nature  meditates,  and  broods 

The  seeds  of  unexampled  things 

Which  Time  to  consummation  brings 

Through  life  and  death  and  man's  unstable  moods. 

They  met  her  here,  not  recognized, 

A  sylvan  huntress  clothed  in  furs, 

To  whose  chaste  wants  her  bow  sufficed, 

Nor  dreamed  what  destinies  were  hers. 

She  taught  them  bee-like  to  create 

Their  simpler  forms  of  Church  and  State  ; 

She  taught  them  to  endue 

The  past  with  other  functions  than  it  knew, 

And  turn  in  channels  strange  the  uncertain  stream  of  Fate  ; 

Better  than  all,  she  fenced  them  in  their  need 

With  iron-handed  Duty's  sternest  creed, 

'Gainst  Self's  lean  wolf  that  ravens  word  and  deed. 


Why  cometh  she  hither  to-clay 

To  this  low  village  of  the  plain 

Far  from  the  Present's  loud  highway, 

From  Trade's  cool  heart  and  seething  brain  ? 

Why  cometh  she  ?     She  was  not  far  away. 

Since  the  soul  touched  it,  not  in  vain, 

With  pathos  of  immortal  gain, 

'Tis  here  her  fondest  memories  stay. 

She  loves  yon  pine-bemurmured  ridge 

Where  now  our  broad-browed  poet  sleeps, 

Dear  to  both  Englands  ;  near  him  he 

Who  wore  the  ring  of  Canace  ; 

But  most  her  heart  to  rapture  leaps 

Where  stood  that  era-parting  bridge, 

O'er  which,  with  footfall  still  as  dew, 

The  Old  Time  passed  into  the  New  ; 

Where,  as  your  stealthy  river  creeps, 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  85 

He  whispers  to  his  listening  weeds 

Tales  of  sublimest  homespun  deeds. 

Here  English  law  and  English  thought 

'Gainst  the  selfvvill  of  England  fought  ; 

And  here  were  men  (co-equal  with  their  fate), 

Who  did  great  things,  unconscious  they  were  great. 

They  dreamed  not  what  a  die  was  cast 

With  that  first  answering  shot-;  what  then? 

There  was  their  duty  ;  they  were  men 

Schooled  the  soul's  inward  gospel  to  obey, 

Though  leading  to  the  lion's  den. 

They  felt  the  habit-hallowed  world  give  way 

Beneath  their  lives,  and  on  went  they, 

Unhappy  who  was  last. 

When  Buttrick  gave  the  word, 

That  awful  idol  of  the  unchallenged  Past, 

Strong  in  their  love,  and  in  their  lineage  strong, 

Fell  crashing:  if  they  heard  it  not, 

Yet  the  earth  heard, 

Nor  ever  hath  forgot, 

As  on  from  startled  throne  to  throne, 

Where  Superstition  sate  on  conscious  Wrong, 

A  shudder  ran  of  some  dread  birth  unknown. 

Thrice  venerable  spot ! 

River  more  fateful  than  the  Rubicon ! 

O'er  those  red  planks,  to  snatch  her  diadem, 

Man's  Hope,  star-girdled,  sprang  with  them, 

And  over  ways  untried  the  feet  of  Doom  strode  on. 

VIT. 

Think  you  these  felt  no  charms 

In  their  gray  homesteads  and  embowered  farms? 

In  household  faces  waiting  at  the  door 

Their  evening  step  should  lighten  up  no  more  ? 

In  fields  their  boyish  steps  had  known? 

In  trees  their  fathers'  hands  had  set, 

And  which  with  them  had  grown, 

Widening  each  year  their  leafy  coronet  ? 

Felt  they  no  pang  of  passionate  regret 

For  those  unsolid  goods  that  seem  so  much  our  own  ? 

These  things  are  dear  to  every  man  that  lives, 

And  life  prized  more  for  what  it  lends  than  gives. 

Yea,  many  a  tie,  by  iteration  sweet, 

Strove  to  detain  their  fatal  feet ; 


86  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

And  yet  the  enduring  half  they  chose, 

Whose  choice  decides  a  man  life's  slave  or  king, 

The  invisible  things  of  God  before  the  seen  and  known 

Therefore  their  memory  inspiration  blows 

With  echoes  gathering  on  from  zone  to  zone  ; 

For  manhood  is  the  one  immortal  thing 

Beneath  Time's  changeful  sky, 

And,  where  it  lightened  once,  from  age  to  age, 

Men  come  to  learn,  in  grateful  pilgrimage, 

That  length  of  days  is  knowing  when  to  die. 


VIII. 


What  marvellous  change  of  things  and  men  ! 
She,  a  world-wandering  orphan  then, 
So  mighty  now !     Those  are  her  streams 
That  whirl  the  myriad,  myriad  wheels 
Of  all  that  does,  and  all  that  dreams, 
Of  all  that  thinks,  and  all  that  feels, 
Through  spaces  stretched  from  sea  to  sea  ; 
By  idle  tongues  and  busy  brains, 
By  who  doth  right,  and  who  refrains, 
Hers  are  our  losses  and  our  gains ; 
Our  maker  and  our  victim  she. 


IX. 

Maiden  half  mortal,  half  divine, 

We  triumphed  in  thy  coming ;  to  the  brinks 

Our  hearts  were  filled  with  pride's  tumultuous  wine  ; 

Better  to-day  who  rather  feels  than  thinks. 

Vet  will  some  graver  thoughts  intrude, 

And  cares  of  sterner  mood  ; 

They  won  thee  :  who  shall  keep  thee?     From  the  deeps 

Where  discrowned  empires  o'er  their  ruins  brood, 

And  many  a  thwarted  hope  wrings  its  weak  hands  and  weeps, 

I  hear  the  voice  as  of  a  mighty  wind 

From  all  heaven's  caverns  rushing  unconfined, 

•*  I,  Freedom,  dwell  with  Knowledge  :  I  abide 

With  men  whom  dust  of  faction  cannot  blind 

To  the  slow  tracings  of  the  Eternal  Mind, 

With  men  by  culture  trained  and  fortified, 

Who  bitter  duty  to  sweet  lusts  prefer, 

Fearless  to  counsel  and  obey. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  87 

Conscience  my  sceptre  is,  and  law  my  sword, 

Not  to  be  drawn  in  passion  or  in  play, 

But  terrible  to  punish  and  deter ; 

Implacable  as  God's  word, 

Like  it,  a  shepherd's  crook  to  them  that  blindly  err. 

Your  firm-pulsed  sires,  my  martyrs  and  my  saints, 

Shoots  of  that  only  race  whose  patient  sense 

Hath  known  to  mingle  flux  with'  permanence,- 

Rated  my  chaste  denials  and  restraints 

Above  the  moment's  dear-paid  paradise  : 

Beware  lest,  shifting  with  Time's  gradual  creep, 

The  light  that  guided  shine  into  your  eyes. 

The  envious  Powers  of  ill  nor  wink  nor  sleep. 

Be  therefore  timely  wise, 

Nor  laugh  when  this  one  steals,  and  that  one  lies, 

As  if  your  luck  could  cheat  those  sleepless  spies, 

Till  the  deaf  Fury  comes  your  house  to  sweep  !  " 

1  hear  the  voice,  and  unarTrighted  bow; 

Ye  shall  not  be  prophetic  now, 

Heralds  of  ill,  that  darkening  fly 

Between  my  vision  and  the  rainbowed  sky, 

Or  on  the  left  your  hoarse  forebodings  croak 

From  many  a  blasted  bough 

On  Yggdrasil's  storm-sinewed  oak, 

That  once  was  green,  Hope  of  the  West,  as  thou : 

Yet  pardon  if  1  tremble  while  I  boast ; 

For  thee  1  love  as  those  who  pardon  most. 


x. 

Away,  ungrateful  doubt,  away  ! 
At  least  she  is  our  own  to-day. 
Break  into  rapture,  my  song, 
Verses,  leap  forth  in  the  sun, 
Bearing  the  joyance  along 
Like  a  train  of  fire  as  ye  run  ! 
Pause  not  for  choosing  of  words, 
Let  them  but  blossom  and  sing 
Blithe  as  the  orchards  and  birds 
With  the  new  coming  of  spring! 
Dance  in  your  jollity,  bells ; 
Shout,  cannon  ;  cease  not,  ye  drums  ; 
Answer,  ye  hillside  and  dells  ; 
Bow,  all  ye  people  !     She  comes, 


88  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Radiant,  calm-fronted,  as  when 

She  hallowed  that  April  day. 

Stay  with  us !     Yes,  thou  shalt  stay, 

Softener  and  strengthener  of  men, 

Freedom,  not  \von  by  the  vain, 

Not  to  be  courted  in  play, 

Not  to  be  kept  without  pain. 

Stay  with  us !     Yes,  thou  wilt  stay. 

Handmaid  and  mistress  of  all, 

Kindler  of  deed  and  of  thought, 

Thou  that  to  hut  and  to  hall 

Equal  deliverance  brought ! 

Souls  of  her  martyrs,  draw  near, 

Touch  our  dull  lips  with  your  fire, 

That  we  may  praise  without  fear 

Her  our  delight,  our  desire, 

Our  faith's  inextinguishable  star, 

Our  hope,  our  remembrance,  our  trust, 

Our  present,  our  past,  our  to  be, 

Who  will  mingle  her  life  with  our  dust, 

And  makes  us  deserve  to  be  free  ! 


The  President  of  the  Day  then  said,— 

A  man  whose  studious  youth  was  passed  near  the  Old  North  Bridge  in 
Concord,  and  whose  eloquent  words  have  since  been  known  throughout  the 
nation,  will  address  you  as  the  orator  of  the  day, —  George  William  Curtis, 
once  of  Concord,  now  of  New  York.  Before  he  begins,  as  you  may  not  all 
be  in  the  tent  at  the  dinner,  I  will  hold  up  for  this  audience  to  see,  all  that 
is  left  of  the  sword  that  Isaac  Davis  carried  at  Concord  North  Bridge. 
There  is  about  a  foot  gone  ;  but  it  would  only  require  him  to  have  taken  one 
step  farther  forward,  which  he  would  willingly  have  done. 

Loud  applause  followed  these  remarks  ;  and  Mr.  Curtis  was  also 
warmly  applauded  as  he  rose.  After  acknowledging  the  greeting  of 
the  audience,  he  delivered  the  following: 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  89 


ORATION. 

WE  are  fortunate  that  we  behold  this  day.     The  heavens 

« 

bend  benignly  over ;  the  earth  blossoms  with  renewed  life ; 
and  our  hearts  beat  joyfully  together  with  one  emotion  of  filial 
gratitude  and  patriotic  exultation.  Citizens  of  a  great,  free, 
and  prosperous  country,  we  come  hither  to  honor  the  men, 
our  fathers,  who,  on  this  spot  and  upon  this  day,  a  hundred 
years  ago,  struck  the  first  blow  in  the  contest  which  made 
that  country  independent.  Here  beneath  the  hills  they  trod, 
by  the  peaceful  river  on  whose  shores  they  dwelt,  amidst  the 
fields  that  they  sowed  and  reaped,  proudly  recalling  their 
virtue  and  their  valor,  we  come  to  tell  their  story,  to  try  our 
selves  by  their  lofty  standard  to  know  if  we  are  their  worthy 
children,  and,  standing  reverently  where  they  stood  and 
fought  and  died,  to  swear  before  God  and  each  other,  in  the 
words  of  him  upon  whom  in  our  day  the  spirit  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  fathers  visibly  descended,  that  government  of  the 
People,  by  the  People,  for  the  People,  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth. 

This  ancient  town,  with  its  neighbors  who  share  its  glory, 
has  never  failed  fitly  to  commemorate  this  great  day  of  its 
history.  Fifty  years  ago,  while  some  soldiers  of  the  Concord 
fight  were  yet  living. —  twenty-five  years  ago,  while  still  a  few 
venerable  survivors  lingered,  —  with  prayer  and  eloquence 
and  song  you  renewed  the  pious  vow.  But  the  last  living 
link  with  the  Revolution  has  long  been  broken.  Great  events 
and  a  mightier  struggle  have  absorbed  our  own  generation. 
Yet  we  who  stand  here  to-day  have  a  sympathy  with  the  men 


9O  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

at  the  old  North  Bridge,  which  those  who  preceded  us  here  at 
earlier  celebrations  could  not  know.  With  them,  war  was  a 
name  and  a  tradition.  So  swift  and  vast  had  been  the  change 
and  the  development  of  the  country,  that  the  Revolutionary 
clash  of  arms  was  already  vague  and  unreal,  and  Concord 
and  Lexington  seemed  to  them  almost  as  remote  and  historic 
as  Arbela  and  Sempach.  When  they  assembled  to  celebrate 
this  day,  they  saw  a  little  group  of  tottering  forms,  eyes  from 
which  the  light  was  fading,  arms  nerveless  and  withered,  thin 
white  hairs  that  fluttered  in  the  wind ;  they  saw  a  few  vener- 
erable  relics  of  a  vanished  age,  whose  pride  was,  that,  before 
living  memory,  they  had  been  minute-men  of  American 
Independence.  But  with  us  how  changed  !  War  is  no  longer 
a  tradition  half  romantic  and  obscure.  .  It  has  ravaged  how 
many  of  our  homes !  it  has  wrung  how  many  of  the  hearts 
before  me!  North  and  South  we  know  the  pang.  Our  com 
mon  liberty  is  consecrated  by  a  common  sorrow.  We  do  not 
count  around  us  a  few  feeble  veterans  of  the  contest ;  but  we 
are  girt  with  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses."  We  are  surrounded 
everywhere  by  multitudes  in  the  vigor  of  their  prime.  Behold 
them  here  to-day  sharing  in  these  pious  and  peaceful  rites, 
—  the  honored  citizens,  legislators,  magistrates,  yes,  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  republic,  —  whose  glory  it  is  that  they  were 
minute-men  of  American  liberty  and  union.  These  men  of 
to-day  interpret  to  us  with  resistless  eloquence  the  men  and 
the  times  we  commemorate.  Now,  if  never  before,  we  under 
stand  the  Revolution.  Now  we  know  the  secret  of  those  old 
hearts  and  homes.  We  can  measure  the  sacrifice,  the  cour 
age,  the  devotion  ;  for  we  have  seen  them  all.  Green  hills  of 
Concord,  broad  fields  of  Middlesex,  that  heard  the  voice  of 
Hancock  and  of  Adams,  you  heard,  also,  the  call  of  Lincoln 
and  of  Andrew  ;  and  your  Ladd  and  Whitney,  your  Prescott 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  QI 

and  Ripley  and  Melvin,  have  revealed  to  us  more  truly  the 
Davis  and  the  Buttrick,  the  Hosmer  and  the  Parker,  of  a 
hundred  years  ago. 

The  story  of  this  old  town  is  the  history  of  New  England. 
It  shows  us  the  people  and  the  institutions  that  have  made 
the  American  republic.  Concord  was  the  first  settlement  in 
New  England  above  tide-water.  It  was  planted  directly  from 
the  mother-country,  and  was  what  was  called  a  mother-town, 
the  parent  of  other  settlements  throughout  the  wilderness. 
It  was  a  military  post  in  King  Philip's  war;  and  two  hundred 
years  ago — just  a  century  before  the  minute-men  whom  we 
commemorate  —  the  militia  of  Middlesex  were  organized  as 
minute-men  against  the  Indians.  It  is  a  Concord  tradition, 
that  in  those  stern  days,  when  the  farmer  tilled  these  fields  at 
the  risk  of  his  life,  Mary  Shepard,  a  girl  of  fifteen,  was  watch 
ing  on  one  of  the  hills  for  the  savages,  while  her  brothers 
threshed  in  the  barn.  Suddenly  the  Indians  appeared,  slew 
the  brothers,  and  carried  her  away.  In  the  night,  while  the 
savages  slept,  she  untied  a  horse  which  they  had  stolen, 
slipped  a  saddle  from  under  the  head  of  one  of  her  captors, 
mounted,  fled,  swam  the  Nashua  River,  and  rode  through  the 
forest  home.  Mary  Shepard  was  the  true  ancestor  of  the 
Concord  matrons  who  share  the  fame  of  this  day,  —  of  Mrs. 
James  Barrett,  of  the  Widow  Brown,  of  Mrs.  Amos  Wood, 
and  Hannah  Burns,  with  the  other  faithful  women  whose  self- 
command,  and  ready  wit  and  energy,  on  this  great  morning, 
show  that  the  mothers  of  New  England  were  like  the  fathers, 
and  that  equally  in  both  their  children  may  reverence  their 
own  best  virtues. 

A  little  later  than  Philip's  war,  one  hundred  and  eighty-six 
years  ago  last  night,  while  some  of  the  first  settlers  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  still  lingered,  when  the  news  came  that  King 


Q2  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

James  the  Second  had  been  dethroned,  a  company  marched 
from  this  town,  and  joined  that  general  uprising  of  the  colony 
which  the  next  day,  this  very  day,  with  old  Simon  Bradstreet 
at  its  head,  deposed  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  the  king's  govern 
or,  and  restored  the  ancient  charter  of  the  colony.  "We 
demand  only  the  traditional  rights  of  Englishmen,"  said  the 
English  nobles,  as  they  seated  William  and  Mary  upon  the 
throne.  "  We  ask  nothing  more,"  said  the  freemen  of  Con 
cord,  as  they  helped  to  dissolve  royal  government  in  America, 
and  returned  to  their  homes.  Eighty-five  years  later,  the  first 
Provincial  Congress,  which  had  been  called  to  meet  at  Con 
cord,  if,  for  any  reason,  the  General  Court  at  Salem  were 
obstructed,  assembled  in  the  old  meeting-house  on  the  nth  of 
October,  1774,  the  first  independent  legislature  in  Massachu 
setts,  in  America ;  and  from  that  hour  to  this  the  old  mother- 
town  has  never  forgotten  the  words,  nor  forsworn  the  faith,  of 
the  Revolution,  which  had  been  proclaimed  here  six  weeks 
before :  "  No  danger  shall  affright,  no  difficulties  intimidate 
us  ;  and  if,  in  support  of  our  rights,  we  are  called  to  encounter 
even  death,  we  are  yet  undaunted,  sensible  that  he  can  never 
die  too  soon  who  lays  down  his  life  in  support  of  the  laws 
and  liberties  of  his  country." 

But  the  true  glory  of  Concord,  as  of  all  New  England,  was 
the  town  meeting,  the  nursery  of  American  Independence. 
When  the  Revolution  began,  of  the  eight  millions  of  people 
then  living  in  Old  England,  only  one  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  were  voters ;  while  in  New  England  the  great 
mass  of  free  male  adults  were  electors.  And  they  had  been 
so  from  the  landing  at  Plymouth.  Here  in  the  wilderness  the 
settlers  were  forced  to  govern  themselves.  They  could  not 
constantly  refer  and  appeal  to  another  authority  twenty  miles 
away  through  the  woods.  Every  day  brought  its  duty,  that 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  93 

must  be  done  before  sunset.  Roads  must  be  made,  schools 
built,  young  men  trained  to  arms  against  the  savage  and  the 
wild-cat,  taxes  must  be  laid  and  collected  for  all  common  pur 
poses,  preaching  must  be  maintained  ;  and  who  could  know 
the  time,  the  means,  and  the  necessity,  so  well  as  the  commu 
nity  itself?  Thus  each  town  was  a  small  but  perfect  repub 
lic,  as  solitary  and  secluded  in  the  New  England  wilderness 
as  the  Swiss  cantons  among  the  Alps.  No  other  practicable 
human  institution  has  been  devised  or  conceived  to  secure 
the  just  ends  of  local  government  so  felicitous  as  the  town 
meeting.  It  brought  together  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  good 
and  the  bad,  and  gave  character,  eloquence,  and  natural 
leadership  full  and  free  play.  It  enabled  superior  experience 
and  sagacity  to  govern ;  and  virtue  and  intelligence  alone  are 
rulers  by  divine  right.  The  Tories  called  the  resolution  for 
committees  of  correspondence  the  source  of  the  rebellion;  but 
it  was  only  a  correspondence  of  town  meetings.  From  that 
correspondence  came  the  confederation  of  the  colonies.  Out 
of  that  arose  the  closer,  majestic  union  of  the  Constitution, 
the  greater  phoenix  born  from  the  ashes  of  the  lesser ;  and  the 
national  power  and  prosperity  to-day  rest  securely  only  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  primary  meeting.  That  is  where  the 
duty  of  the  citizen  begins.  Neglect  of  that  is  disloyalty  to 
liberty.  No  contrivance  will  supply  its  place,  no  excuse 
absolve  the  neglect;  and  the  American  who  is  guilty  of  that 
neglect  is  as  deadly  an  enemy  of  his  country  as  the  British 
soldier  a  century  ago. 

But  here  and  now  I  cannot  speak  of  the  New  England 
town  meeting  without  recalling  its  great  genius,  the  New- 
Englander  in  whom  the  Revolution  seemed  to  be  most  fully 
embodied,  and  the  lofty  prayer  of  whose  life  was  answered 
upon  this  spot  and  on  this  day.  He  was  not  eloquent  like 


94  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

Otis,  nor  scholarly  like  Quincy,  nor  all-fascinating  like  War 
ren,  yet  bound  heart  to  heart  with  these  great  men,  his  friends, 
the  plainest,  simplest,  austerest,  among  them,  he  gathered  all 
their  separate  gifts,*and,  adding  to  them  his  own,  fused  the 
whole  in  the  glow  of  that  untiring  energy,  that  unerring  per 
ception,  that  sublime  will,  which  moved  before  the  chosen 
people  of  the  colonies  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  of  fire  by 
night.  People  of  Massachusetts,  your  proud  and  grateful 
hearts  outstrip  my  lips  in  pronouncing  the  name  of  Samuel 
Adams.  Elsewhere  to-day,  nearer  the  spot  where  he  stood 
with  his  immortal  friend  Hancock  a  hundred  years  ago  this 
morning,  a  son  of  Massachusetts,  who  bears  the  name  of  a 
friend  of  Samuel  Adams,  and  whose  own  career  has  honora 
bly  illustrated  the  fidelity  of  your  State  to  human  liberty,  will 
pay  a  fitting  tribute  to  the  true  American  tribune  of  the  peo- 
p]e?  —  the  father  of  the  Revolution,  as  he  was  fondly  called. 
But  we  also  are  his  children,  and  must  not  omit  our  duty. 

Until  1768,  Samuel  Adams  did  not  despair  of  a  peaceful 
issue  of  the  quarrel  with  Great  Britain.  But  when,  in  May 
of  that  year,  the  British  frigate  "  Romney  "  sailed  into  Boston 
harbor,  and  her  shotted  guns  were  trained  upon  the  town,  he 
saw  that  the  question  was  changed.  From  that  moment,  he 
knew  that  America  must  be  free,  or  slave;  and  the  unceasing 
effort  of  his  life  by  day  and  night,  with  tongue  and  pen,  was% 
to  nerve  his  fellow-colonists  to  strike  when  the  hour  should 
come.  On  that  gray  December  evening,  two  years  later, 
when  he  rose  in  the  Old  South,  and  in  a  clear,  calm  voice 
said,  "  This  meeting  can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the  coun 
try,"  and  so  gave  the  word  for  the  march  to  the  tea-ships,  he 
comprehended  more  clearly,  perhaps,  than  any  man  in  the 
colonies,  the  immense  and  far-reaching  consequences  of  his 
words.  He  was  ready  to  throw  the  tea  overboard,  because  he 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  95 

was  ready  to  throw  overboard  the  King  and  Parliament  of 
England. 

During  the  ten  years  from  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act 
to  the  day  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  this  poor  man,  in  an 
obscure  provincial  town  beyond  the  sea,  was  engaged  with 
the  British  ministry  in  one  of  the  mightiest  contests  that  his 
tory  records.  Not  a  word  in  parliament  that  he  did  not  hear, 
not  an  act  in  the  cabinet  that  he  'did  not  see.  With  brain 
and  heart  and  conscience  all  alive,  he  opposed  every  hostile 
order  in  council  with  a  British  precedent,  and  arrayed  against 
the  Government  of  Great  Britain  the  battery  of  principles 
impregnable  with  the  accumulated  strength  of  centuries  of 
British  conviction.  The  cold  Grenville,  the  brilliant  Towns- 
end,  the  obsequious  North,  the  reckless  Hillsborough,  the 
crafty  Dartmouth,  all  the  ermined  and  coroneted  chiefs  of 
the  proudest  aristocracy  in  the  world,  derided,  declaimed,  de 
nounced,  laid  unjust  taxes,  and  sent  troops  to  collect  them, 
cheered  loudly  by  a  servile  parliament,  the  parasite  of  a  head 
strong  king;  and  the  plain  Boston  Puritan  laid  his  finger 
on  the  vital  point  of  the  tremendous  controversy,  and  held  to 
it  inexorably  king,  lords,  commons,  the  people  of  England, 
and  the  people  of  America.  Entrenched  in  his  own  honesty, 
the  king's  gold  could  not  buy  him  ;  enshrined  in  the  love 
•  of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  king's  writ  could  not  take  him  : 
and  whereon  this  morning,  the  king's  troops  marched  to  seize 
him,  his  sublime  faith  saw  beyond  the  clouds  of  the  moment 
the  rising  sun  of  the  America  that  we  behold;  and  careless  of 
himself,  mindful  only  of  his  country,  he  exultingly  exclaimed, 
"  Oh,  what  a  glorious  morning !  " 

Yet  this  man  held  no  office  but  that  of  clerk  of  the  assembly, 
to  which  he  was  yearly  elected,  and  that  of  constant  modera 
tor  of  the  town  meeting.  That  was  his  mighty  weapon.  The 


96  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

town  meeting  was  the  alarm-bell  with  which  he  aroused  the 
continent:  it  was  the  rapier  with  which  he  fenced  with  tht; 
ministry  :  it  was  the  claymore  with  which  he  smote  their  coun 
sels  :  it  was  the  harp  of  a  thousand  strings  that  he  swept  into 
a  burst  of  passionate  defiance,  or  an  electric  call  to  arms,  or  a 
proud  paean  of  exulting  triumph,  defiance,  challenge,  and  exul 
tation — all  lifting  the  continent  to  independence.  His  indom 
itable  will,  and  command  of  the  popular  confidence,  played 
Boston  against  London,  the  provincial  town  meeting  against 
the  royal  parliament,  Faneuil  Hall  against  St.  Stephen's. 
And  as  long  as  the  American  town  meeting  is  known,  its  great 
genius  will  be  revered,  who  with  the  town  meeting  overthrew 
an  empire.  So  long  as  Faneuil  Hall  stands,  Samuel  Adams 
will  not  want  his  most  fitting  monument;  and,  when  Faneuil 
Hall  falls,  its  name  with  his  will  be  found  written  as  with  a 
sunbeam  upon  every  faithful  American  heart. 

The  first  imposing  armed  movement  against  the  colonies, 
on  the  i Qth  of  April,  1775,  did  not,  of  course,  take  by  sur 
prise  a  people  so  prepared.  For  ten  years  they  had  seen  the 
possibility,  for  five  years  the  probability,  and  for  at  least  a 
year,  the  certainty,  of  the  contest.  They  quietly  organized, 
watched,  and  waited.  The  royal  governor,  Gage,  was  a  sol 
dier;  and  he  had  read  the  signs  of  the  times.  He  had  fought 
with  -provincial  troops  at  the  bloody  ambuscade  of  Braddock ; 
and  he  felt  the  full  force  of  the  mighty  determination  that 
exalted  New  England.  He  had  about  four  thousand  effec 
tive  troops,  trained  veterans,  with  brilliant  officers,  who  de 
spised  and  ridiculed  the  Yankee  militia.  Massachusetts  had 
provided  for  a  constitutional  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men. 
Minute  companies  were  everywhere  organized,  and  military 
supplies  were  deposited  at  convenient  towns.  Everybody 
was  on  the  alert.  Couriers  were  held  ready  to  alarm  the 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  97 

country,  should  the  British  march,  and  wagons  to  remove  the 
stores.  In  the  early  spring,  Gage  sent  out  some  of  his  officers 
as  spies;  and  two  of  them  came  in  disguise  as  far  as  Concord. 
On  the  22d  of  March,  the  Provincial  Congress  met  in  this 
town,  and  made  the  last  arrangements  for  a  possible  battle, 
begging  the  militia  and  minute-men  to  be  ready,  but  to  act 
only  on  the  defensive. 

As  the  spring  advanced,  it  was  plain  that  some  movement 
would  be  made;  and  on  Monday,  the  lyth  of  April,  the 
Committee  of  Safety  ordered  part  of  the  stores  deposited 
here  to  be  removed  to  Sudbury  and  Groton,  and  the  cannon 
to  be  secreted.  On  Tuesday,  the  i8th,  Gage,  who  had 
decided  to  send  a  force  to  Concord  to  destroy  the  stores, 
picketed  the  roads  from  Boston  into  Middlesex  to  prevent 
any  report  of  the  intended  march  from  spreading  into  the 
country.  But  the  very  air  was  electric.  In  the  tension  of 
the  popular  mind,  every  sound  and  sight  was  significant.  It 
was  part  of  Gage's  plan  to  seize  Hancock  and  Adams,  who 
were  at  Lexington;  and,  on  the  evening  of  the  i8th,  the 
Committee  of  Safety,  at  Cambridge,  sent  them  word  to  be 
ware,  for  suspicious  officers  were  abroad.  A  British  grena 
dier,  in  full  uniform,  went  into  a  shop  in  Boston.  He  might 
as  well  have  proclaimed  that  an  expedition  was  on  foot.  In  the 
afternoon,  one  of  the  governor's  grooms  strolled  into  a  stable 
where  John  Ballard  was  cleaning  a  horse.  John  Ballard  was 
a  son  of  liberty;  and  when  the  groom  idly  remarked,  in  ner 
vous -English,  that  "there  would  be  hell  to  pay  to-morrow," 
John's  heart  leaped,  and  his  hand  shook ;  and,  asking  the 
groom  to  finish  cleaning  the  horse,  he  ran  to  a  friend,  who 
carried  the  news  straight  to  Paul  Revere,  who  told  him  he 
had  already  heard  it  from  two  other  persons. 

That  evening,  at  ten  o'clock,  eight  hundred  British  troops, 


9  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

under  Lieut-Col.  Smith,  took  boat  at  the  foot  of  the  Com 
mon,  and  crossed  to  the  Cambridge  shore.  Gage  thought 
that  his  secret  had  been  kept;  but  Lord  Percy,  who  had 
heard  the  people  say  on  the  Common  that  the  troops  would 
miss  their  aim,  undeceived  him.  Gage  instantly  ordered  that 
no  one  should  leave  the  town.  But  Dr.  Warren  was  before 
him ;  and,  as  the  troops  crossed  the  river,  William  Dawes, 
with  a  message  from  Warren  to  Hancock  and  Adams,  was 
riding  over  the  Neck  to  Roxbury,  and  Paul  Revere  was  row 
ing  over  the  river  farther  down  to  Charlestown,  having 
agreed  with  his  friend  Robert  Newman  to  show  lanterns 
from  the  belfry  of  the  Old  North  Church  — 

"  One,  if  by  land,  and  two,  if  by  sea  "  — 

as  a  signal  of  the  march  of  the  British.  Already  the  moon 
was  rising ;  and,  while  the  troops  were  stealthily  landing  at 
Lechmere  Point,  their  secret  was  flashed  out  into  the  April 
night;  and  Paul  Revere,  springing  into  the  saddle  upon  the 
Charlestown  shore,  spurred  away  into  Middlesex. 

u  How  far  that  little  candle  throws  his  beams  !  " 

The  modest  spire  yet  stands,  reverend  relic  of  the  old  town  of 
Boston,  —  of  those  brave  men  and  of  their  deeds.  Startling 
the  land  that  night  with  the  warning  of  danger,  let  it  remind 
the  land  forever  of  the  patriotism  with  which  that  danger 
was  averted,  and  for  our  children,  as  for  our  fathers,  still  stand 
secure,  the  Pharos  of  American  liberty. 

It  was  a  brilliant  April  night.  The  winter  had  been  un 
usually  mild,  and  the  spring  very  forward.  The  hills  were 
already  green  ;  the  early  grain  waved  in  the  fields ;  and  the 
air  was  sweet  with  blossoming  orchards.  Already  the  robins 
whistled,  the  bluebird  sang,  and  the  benediction  of  peace 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  99 

rested  upon  the  landscape.  Under  the  cloudless  moon  the 
soldiers  silently  marched,  and  Paul  Revere  swiftly  rode,  gal 
loping  through  Medford  and  West  Cambridge,  rousing  every 
house  as  he  went,  spurring  for  Lexington,  and  Hancock  and 
Adams,  and  evading  the  British  patrols  who  had  been  sent 
out  to  stop  the  news.  Stop  the  news !  Already  the  village 
church  bells  were  beginning  to  ring  the  alarm,  as  the  pulpits 
beneath  them  had  been  ringing  for  many  a  year.  In  the 
awakening  houses,  lights  flashed  from  window  to  window. 
Drums  beat  faintly  far  away  and  on  every  side.  Signal-guns 
flashed  and  echoed.  The  watch-dogs  barked,  the  cocks  crew. 
Stop  the  news!  Stop  the  sunrise!  The  murmuring  night 
trembled  with  the  summons  so  earnestly  expected,  so  dreaded, 
so  desired.  And  as,  long  ago,  the  voice  rang  out  at  midnight 
along  the  Syrian  shore,  wailing  that  great  Pan  was  dead,  but 
in  the  same  moment  the  choiring  angels  whispered,  "  Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest,  for  Christ  is  born,"  so,  if  the  stern 
alarm  of  that  April  night  seemed  to  many  a  wistful  and  loyal 
heart  to  portend  the  passing  glory  of  British  dominion,  and 
the  tragical  chance  of  war,  it  whispered  to  them  with  pro 
phetic  inspiration,  "  Good-will  to  men  :  America  is  born  !  " 

There  is  a  tradition,  that,  long  before  the  troops  reached 
Lexington,  an  unknown  horseman  thundered  at  the  door  of 
Capt.  Joseph  Robbins,  in  Acton,  waking  every  man  and 
woman,  and  the  babe  in  the  cradle,  shouting  that  the  regu 
lars  were  marching  to  Concord,  and  that  the  rendezvous  was 
the  old  North  Bridge.  Capt.  Robbins's  son,  a  boy  of  ten 
years,  heard  the  summons  in  the  garret  where  he  lay,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  was  on  his  father's  old  mare,  a  young  Paul 
Revere,  galloping  along  the  road  to  rouse  Capt.  Isaac  Davis, 
who  commanded  the  minute-men  of  Acton.  He  was  a  young 
man  of  thirty,  a  gunsmith  by  trade,  brave  and  thoughtful,  and 


IOO  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

tenderly  fond  of  his  wife-  and  four  children.  The  company 
assembled  at  his  shop,  formed,  and  marched  a  little  way,  when 
he  halted  them,  and  returned  for  a  moment  to  his  house.  He 
said  to  his  wife,  "  Take  good  care  of  the  children,"  kissed 
her,  turned  to  his  men,  gave  the  order  to  march,  and  saw  his 
home  no  more.  Such  was  the  history  of  that  night  in  how 
many  homes !  The  hearts  of  those  men  and  women  of  Mid 
dlesex  might  break ;  but  they  could  not  waver.  They  had 
counted  the  cost.  They  knew  what  and  whom  they  served  ; 
and,  as  the  midnight  summons  came,  they  started  up,  and 
answered,  "  Here  am  I !  " 

Meanwhile  the  British  bayonets,  glistening  in  the  moon, 
moved  steadily  along  the  road.  Col.  Smith  heard  and  saw 
that  the  country  was  aroused,  and  sent  back  to  Boston  for 
re-enforcements,  ordering  Major  Pitcairn,  with  six  companies, 
to  hasten  forward,  and  seize  the  bridges  at  Concord.  Paul 
Revere  and  Dawes  had  reached  Lexington  by  midnight,  and 
had  given  the  alarm.  The  men  of  Lexington  instantly  mus 
tered  on  the  Green ;  but,  as  there  was  no  sign  of  the  enemy, 
they  were  dismissed  to  await  his  coming.  He  was  close  at 
hand.  Pitcairn  swiftly  advanced,  seizing  every  man  upon  the 
road,  and  was  not  discovered  until  half-past  four  in  the  morn 
ing,  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Lexington  meeting-house.  Then 
there  was  a  general  alarm.  The  bell  rang,  drums  beat,  guns 
fired;  and  sixty  or  seventy  of  the  Lexington  militia  were 
drawn  up  in  line  upon  the  Green,  Capt.  John  Parker  at  their 
head.  The  British  bayonets,  glistening  in  the  dawn,  moved 
rapidly  toward  them.  Pitcairn  rode  up,  and  angrily  ordered 
the  militia  to  surrender  and  disperse.  But  they  held  their 
ground.  The  troops  fired  over  their  heads.  Still  the  militia 
stand.  Then  a  deadly  volley  blazed  from  the  British  line; 
and  eight  of  the  Americans  fell  dead,  and  ten  wounded,  at  the 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  ORATION  TENT.  IOI 

doors  of  their  homes,  and  in  sight  of  their  kindred.  Capt. 
Parker,  seeing  that  it  was  massacre,  not  battle,  ordered  his 
men  to  disperse.  They  obeyed,  some  firing  upon  the  enemy. 
The  British  troops,  who  had  suffered  little,  with  a  loud  huzza 
of  victory  pushed  on  toward  Concord,  six  miles  beyond. 

Four  hours  before,  Paul  Revere  and  William  Dawes  had 
left  Lexington  to  rouse  Concord,  and  were  soon  overtaken 
by.  Dr.  Samuel  Prescott  of  that  town,  "a  high  son  of  liberty," 
who  had  been  to  Lexington  upon  a  tender  errand.  A  Brit 
ish  patrol  captured  Revere  and  Dawes ;  but  Prescott  leaped  a 
stone  wall,  and  dashed  on  to  Concord.  Between  one  and 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Amos  Melvin,  the  seiitifte1';  at  Vhe 
court-house,  rang  the  bell,  and  roused  the  town,-,  fie  sprang, 
of  heroic  stock.  One  of  his  family,  thirty  years  '-before;  had 
commanded  a  company  at  Louisburg,  and  another  at  Crown 
Point;  while  four  brothers  of  the  same  family  served  in  the 
late  war,  and  the  honored  names  of  the  three  who  perished 
are  carved  upon  your  soldiers'  monument.  When  the  bell 
rang,  the  first  man  that  appeared  was  William  Emerson,  the 
minister,  with  his  gun  in  his  hand.  It  was  his  faith  that  the 
scholar  should  be  the  minute-man  of  liberty,  — a  faith  which 
his  descendants  have  piously  cherished,  and  illustrated  before 
the  world.  The  minute-men  gathered  hastily  upon  the  Com 
mon.  The  citizens,  hurrying  from  their  homes,  secreted  the 
military  stores.  Messengers  were  sent  to  the  neighboring 
villages,  and  the  peaceful  town  prepared  for  battle.  The 
minute-men  of  Lincoln,  whose  captain  was  William  Smith, 
and  whose  lieutenant  was  Samuel  Hoar, —  a  name  not  unknown 
in  Middlesex,  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  the  country,  and, 
wherever  known,  still  honored  for  the  noblest  qualities  of  the 
men  of  the  Revolution,  —  had  joined  the  Concord  militia  and 
minute-men;  and  part  of  them  had  marched  down  the  Lex- 


IO2  THK  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

ington  road  to  reconnoitre.  Seeing  the  British,  they  fell  back 
toward  the  hill,  over  the  road  at  the  entrance  of  the  village, 
upon  which  stood  the  liberty-pole. 

It  was  now  seven  o'clock.  There  were,  perhaps,  two  hun 
dred  men  in  arms  upon  the  hill.  Below  them,  upon  the  Lex 
ington  road,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away,  rose  a  thick  cloud  of 
dust,  from  which,  amidst  proudly  rolling  drums,  eight  hundred 
British  bayonets  flashed  in  the  morning  sun.  The  Ameri 
cans  saw  that  battle  where  they  stood  would  be  mere  butchery; 
and  they  fell  gradually  back  to  a  rising  ground  about  a  mile 
north  of  the  meeting-house,  —  the  spot  upon  which  we  are 
no<w 'assembled.  The  British  troops  divided  as  they  entered 
the,,  town;  the  infantry  coming  over  the  hill  from  which  the 
Afnericaris^had  retired,  the  marines  and  grenadiers  marching 
by  the  high-road.  The  place  was  well  known  to  the  British 
officers  through  their  spies  ;  and  Colonel  Smith,  halting  before 
the  court-house,  instantly  sent  detachments  to  hold  the  two 
bridges,  and  others  to  destroy  the  stores.  But  so  care 
fully  had  these  been  secreted,  that,  during  the  two  or  three 
hours  in  which  they  were  engaged  in  the  work,  the  British 
only  emptied  about  sixty  barrels  of  flour,  half  of  which  was 
afterward  saved,  knocked  off  the  trunnions  of  three  cannon, 
burned  sixteen  new  carriage-wheels  and  some  barrels  of 
wooden  spoons  and  trenchers,  threw  five  hundred  pounds  of 
balls  into  the  pond  and  wells,  cut  down  the  liberty-pole,  and 
fired  the  court-house. 

The  work  was  hurriedly  done  ;  for  Colonel  Smith,  a  veteran 
soldier,  knew  his  peril.  He  had  advanced  twenty  miles  into 
a  country  of  intelligent  and  resolute  men,  who  were  rising 
around  him.  All  Middlesex  was  moving.  From  Acton  and 
Lincoln,  from  Westford,  Littleton,  and  Chelmsford,  from  Bed 
ford  and  Billerica,  from  Stow,  Sudbury,  and  Carlisle,  the  sons 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  IO3 

of  Indian  fighters,  and  of  soldiers  of  the  old  French  war, 
poured  along  the  roads,  shouldering  the  fire-locks  and  fowling- 
pieces  and  old  king's-arms  that  had  seen  famous  service  when 
the  earlier  settlers  had  gone  out  against  King  Philip,  or  the 
later  colonists  had  marched  under  the  flag  on  which  George 
Whitefield  had  written,  "Nil  desperandum  Cristo  Duce? 
—  Never  despair  while  Christ  is  captain  ;  and  those  words 
the  children  of  the  Puritans  had  written  on  their  hearts.  As 
the  minute-men  from  the  other  towns  arrived,  they  joined  the 
force  upon  the  rising  ground  near  the  North  Bridge,  where 
they  were  drawn  into  line  by  Joseph  Hosmer  of  Concord, 
who  acted  as  adjutant.  By  nine  o'clock,  some  five  hundred 
men  were  assembled,  and  a  consultation  of  officers  and  chief 
citizens  was  held.  That  group  of  Middlesex  farmers,  here 
upon  Punkatasset,  without  thought  that  they  were  heroes, 
or  that  the  day  and  its  deeds  were  to  be  so  momentous,  is  a 
group  as  memorable  as  the  men  of  Rlitli  on  the  Swiss  Alps, 
or  the  barons  in  the  meadow  of  Runnymede.  They  con 
fronted  the  mightiest  empire  in  the  world,  invincible  on  land, 
supreme  on  the  sea,  whose  guns  had  just  been  heard  in  four 
continents  at  once,  girdling  the  globe  with  victory.  And 
that  empire  was  their  mother-land,  in  whose  renown  they  had 
shared,  —  the  land  dear  to  their  hearts  by  a  thousand  ties  of 
love,  pride,  and  reverence.  They  took  a  sublime  and  awful 
responsibility.  They  could  not  know  that  the  other  colonies, 
or  even  their  neighbors  of  Massachusetts,  would  justify  their 
action.  There  was  as  yet  no  Declaration  of  Independence, 
no  continental  army.  There  was,  indeed,  a  general  feeling 
that  a  blow  would  soon  be  struck  ;  but  to  mistake  the  time, 
the  place,  the  way,  might  be  to  sacrifice  the  great  cause  itself, 
and  to  ruin  America.  But  their  conscience  and  their  judg 
ment  assured  them  that  the  hour  had  come.  Before  them 


IO4  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

lay  their  homes,  and  on  the  hill  beyond,  the  graveyard  in 
which  their  forefathers  slept.  A  guard  of  the  king's  troops 
opposed  their  entrance  to  their  own  village.  Those  troops 
were  at  that  moment  searching  their  homes,  perhaps  insulting 
their  wives  and  children.  Already  they  saw  the  smoke  as  of 
burning  houses  rising  in  the  air,  and  they  resolved  to  march 
into  the  town,  and  to  fire  upon  the  troops  if  they  were  op 
posed.  They  resolved  upon  organized,  aggressive,  forcible 
resistance  to  the  military  power  of  Great  Britain, —  the  first 
that  had  been  offered  in  the  colonies.  All  unconsciously 
every  heart  beat  time  to  the  music  of  the  slave's  epitaph  in 
the  graveyard  that  overhung  the  town :  — 

li  God  wills  us  free  ;  man  wills  us  slaves  : 
I  will  as  God  wills  :  God's  will  be  done." 

Isaac  Davis  of  Acton  drew  his  sword,  turned  toward  his 
company,  and  said,  "  I  haven't  a  man  that's  afraid  to  go." 
Colonel  Barrett  of  Concord  gave  the  order  to  march.  In  double 
file,  and  with  trailed  arms,  the  men  moved  along  the  causeway, 
the  Acton  company  in  front;  Major  John  Buttrick  of  Con 
cord,  Captain  Isaac  Davis  of  Acton,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
John  Robinson  of  Westford,  leading  the  way.  As  they 
approached  the  bridge,  the  British  forces  withdrew  across  it, 
and  began  to  take  up  the  planks.  Major  Buttrick  ordered 
his  men  to  hasten  their  march.  As  they  came  within  ten  or 
fifteen  rods  of  the  bridge,  a  shot  was  fired  by  the  British, 
which  wounded  Jonas  Brown,  one  of  the  Concord  minute- 
men,  and  Luther  Blanchard,  fifer  of  the  Acton  company.  A 
British  volley  followed ;  and  Isaac  Davis  of  Acton,  making  a 
way  for  his  countrymen,  like  Arnold  von  Winkelried  at  Sem- 
pach,  fell  dead,  shot  through  the  heart.  By  his  side  fell  his 
friend  and  neighbor,  Abner  Hosmer,  a  youth  of  twenty-two. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  IO5 

Seeing  them  fall,  Major  Buttrick  turned  to  his  men,  and,  rais 
ing  his  hand,  cried,  "  Fire,  fellow  soldiers  !  for  God's  sake, 
fire!"  John  Buttrick  gave  the  word.  The  cry  rang  along 
the  line.  The  Americans  fired.  The  Revolution  began.  It 
began  here.  Let  us  put  off  the  shoes  from  off  our  feet ;  for 
the  place  whereon  we  stand  is  holy  ground. 

One  of  the  British  was  killed,  several  were  wounded ;  and 
they  retreated  in  confusion  toward  the  centre  of  the  village. 
The  engagement  was  doubtless  seen  by  Smith  and  Pitcairn 
from  the  graveyard  hill  that  overlooked  the  town ;  and  the 
shots  were  heard  by  all  the  searching  parties,  which  imme 
diately  returned  in  haste  and  disorder.  Colonel  Smith  instantly 
prepared  to  retire  ;  and  at  noon,  one  hundred  years  ago,  at 
this  hour,  the  British  columns  marched  but  of  yonder  square. 
Then  and  there  began  the  retreat  of  British  power  from  the 
American  colonies.  Through  seven  weary  and  wasting  years 
it  continued.  From  Bunker  Hill  to  Long  Island,  from 
Princeton,  Trenton,  and  Saratoga,  from  the  Brandywine, 
Monmouth,  and  King's  Mountain,  through  the  bloody  snow 
at  Valley  Forge,  through  the  treachery  of  Arnold  and  of  Lee, 
through  cabals  and  doubt,  and  poverty  and  despair,  but 
steadily  urged  by  one  great  heart  that  strengthened  the  con 
tinent, —  the  heart  of  George  Washington,  —  the  British 
retreat  went  on  from  Concord  Bridge  and  Lexington  Green 
to  the  plains  of  Yorktown,  and  the  king's  acknowledgment 
of  American  Independence. 

Of  the  beginning  of  this  retreat,  of  that  terrible  march  of 
the  exhausted  troops  from  this  square  to  Boston,  I  have  no 
time  fitly  to  tell  the  tale.  Almost  as  soon  as  it  began,  all 
Massachusetts  was  in  motion.  William  Prescott  mustered 
his  regiment  of  minute-men  at  Pepperell ;  and  Timothy  Pick 
ering,  at  Salem  and  Marblehead.  Dedham  left  no  man 


IO6  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

behind  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  seventy.  The 
minute-men  of  Worcester  marched  out  of  the  town  one  way 
as  the  news  went  out  the  other,  and,  flying  over  the  moun 
tains,  sent  Berkshire  to  Bunker  Hill.  Meanwhile  the  men 
of  Concord  and  the  neighborhood,  following  the  British  over 
the  Bridge,  ran  along  the  heights  above  the  Lexington  road, 
and  posted  themselves  to  await  the  enemy.  The  retreating 
British  column,  with  wide-sweeping  flankers,  advanced  steadi 
ly  and  slowly.  No  drum  beat,  no  fife  blew :  there  was  the 
hushed  silence  of  intense  expectation.  As  the  troops 
passed  Merriam's  Corner,  a  little  beyond  Concord,  and  the 
flank-guard  was  called  in,  they  turned  suddenly,  and  fired 
upon  the  Americans.  The  minute-men  and  militia  instantly 
returned  the  fire ;  and  the  battle  began  that  lasted  until 
sunset. 

When  Colonel  Smith  ordered  the  retreat,  although  he  and 
his  officers  may  have  had  some  misgivings,  they  had,  probably, 
lost  them  in  the  contempt  of  regulars  for  the  militia;  but, 
from  the  moment  of  the  firing  at  Merriam's  Corner,  they 
were  undeceived.  The  landscape  was  alive  with  armed  men. 
They  swarmed  through  every  wood-path  and  by-way,  across 
the  pastures,  and  over  the  hills.  Some  came  up  in  order 
along  the  roads,  as  from  Reading  and  Billerica,  from  East 
Sudbury  and  Bedford;  and  John  Parker's  company  from 
Lexington  waited  in  a  woody  defile  to  avenge  the  death  of 
their  comrades.  The  British  column  marched  steadily  on  ; 
while  from  trees,  rocks,  and  fences,  from  houses,  barns,  and 
sheds,  blazed  the  withering  American  fire.  The  hills 
echoed  and  flashed.  The  woods  rang.  The  road  became  an 
endless  ambuscade  of  flame.  The  Americans  seemed  to  the 
appalled  British  troops  to  drop  from  the  clouds,  to  spring 
from  the  earth.  With  every  step,  the  attack  was  deadlier, 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  IO/ 

the  danger  more  imminent.  For  some  time,  discipline,  and 
the  plain  extremity  of  the  peril,  sustained  the  order  of  the 
British  line.  But  the  stifling  clouds  of  dust,  the  consuming 
thirst,  the  exhaustion  of  utter  fatigue,  the  wagons  full  of 
wounded  men  moaning  and  dying,  madly  pressing  through 
the  ranks  to  the  front,  the  constant  falling  of  their  comrades, 
officers  captured  and  killed,  and,  through  all,  the  fatal  and 
incessant  shot  of  an  unseen  foe  smote  with  terror  that 
haughty  column,  which,  shrinking,  bleeding,  wavering,  reeled 
through  Lexington  panic-stricken  and  broken.  The  officers, 
seeing  the  dire  extremity,  fought  their  way  to  the  front,  and 
threatened  the  men  with  death  if  they  advanced.  The 
breaking  line  recoiled  a  little,  and  even  steadied  under  one  of 
the  sharpest  attacks  of  the  day ;  for  not  as  yet  were  Hes 
sians  hired  to  enslave  Americans,  and  it  was  English  blood 
and  pluck  on  both  sides.  At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
a  half-mile  beyond  Lexington  meeting-house,  just  as  the 
English  officers  saw  that  destruction  or  surrender  was  the 
only  alternative,  Lord  Percy,  with  a  re-enforcement  of  twelve 
hundred  men,  came  up,  and,  opening  with  two  cannon  upon 
the  Americans,  succored  his  flying  and  desperate  comrades, 
who  fell  upon  the  ground  among  Percy's  troops,  their  parched 
tongues  hanging  from  their  mouths. 

The  flower  of  General  Gage's  army  was  now  upon  the  field  ; 
but  its  commander  saw  at  once  that  its  sole  hope  of  safety 
was  to  continue  the  retreat.  After  half  an  hour's  delay, 
the  march  was  resumed,  and  with  it  the  barbarities,  as  well  as 
the  sufferings,  of  war.  Lord  Percy  threw  out  flanking-parties, 
which  entered  the  houses  upon  the  line  of  march,  plundering 
and  burning.  The  fields  of  Menotomy,  or  Arlington,  through 
which  lay  the  road,  became  a  plain  of  blood  and  fire.  But 
the  American  pursuit  was  relentless  ;  and  beyond  Lexington 


IO8  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

the  lower  counties  and  towns  came  hurrying  to  the  battle. 
Many  a  man  afterward  famous  was  conspicuous  that  day ; 
and,  near  West  Cambridge,  Joseph  Warren  was  the  inspiring 
soul  of  the  struggle.  It  was  now  past  five  o'clock.  The 
British  ammunition  was  giving  out.  The  officers,  too  much 
exposed  in  the  saddle,  alighted,  and  marched  with  the  men, 
who,  as  they  approached  Charlestown,  encountered  the  hot 
test  fire  of  the  day.  General  Gage  had  learned  the  perilous 
extremity  of  his  army  from  a  messenger  sent  by  Percy,  and 
had  issued  a  proclamation  threatening  to  lay  Charlestown  in 
ashes  if  the  troops  were  attacked  in  the  streets.  The  town 
hummed  with  the  vague  and  appalling  rumors  of  the  events 
of  the  day,  and,  just  before  sunset,  the  excited  inhabitants 
heard  the  distant  guns,  and  soon  saw  the  British  troops  run 
ning  along  the  old  Cambridge  road  to  Charlestown  Neck, 
firing  as  they  came.  They  had  just  escaped  the  militia 
seven  hundred  strong  from  Salem  and  Marblehead,  —  the 
flower  of  Essex ;  and,  as  the  sun  was  setting,  they  entered 
Charlestown  and  gained  the  shelter  of  their  frigate-guns. 
Then  General  Heath  ordered  the  American  pursuit  to  stop, 
and  the  battle  was  over.  But  all  that  day  and  night  the  news 
was  flying  from  mouth  to  mouth,  from  heart  to  heart,  rousing 
every  city,  town,  and  solitary  farm  in  the  colonies ;  and  before 
the  last  shot  of  the  minute-men  on  the  British  retreat  from 
Concord  Bridge  was  fired,  or  the  last  wounded  grenadier  had 
been  rowed  across  the  river,  the  whole  country  was  in  arms. 
Massachusetts,  New  England,  America,  were  closing  around 
the  city ;  and  the  siege  of  Boston,  and  the  war  of  American 
Independence,  had  begun. 

Such  was  the  opening  battle  of  the  Revolution,  —  a  con 
flict,  which,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  saved  civil  liberty  in  two 
hemispheres, — saved  England  as  well  as  America,  and 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  ICX) 

whose  magnificent  results  shine  through  the  world  as  the 
beacon-light  of  free  popular  government.  And  who  won  this 
victory  ?  The  minute-men  and  militia,  who,  in  the  history  of 
our  English  race,  have  been  always  the  vanguard  of  freedom. 
The  minute-man  of  the  American  Revolution  —  who  was  he  ? 
He  was  the  husband  and  father,  who,  bred  to  love  liberty, 
and  to  know  that  lawful  liberty  is  the  sole  guaranty  of  peace 
and  progress,  left  the  plough  in  the  furrow,  and  the  hammer 
on  the  bench,  and,  kissing  wife  and  children,  marched  to  die 
—  or  to  be  free.  He  was  the  son  and  lover,  the  plain,  shy 
youth  of  the  singing-school  and  the  village  choir,  whose  heart 
beat  to  arms  for  his  country,  and  who  felt,  though  he  could 
not  say,  with  the  old  English  cavalier,  — 

"  I  could  not  love  thee,  deare,  so  much, 
Loved  I  not  honor  more." 

The  minute-man  of  the  Revolution !  —  he  was  the  old,  the 
middle-aged,  and  the  young.  He  was  Captain  Miles  of  Con 
cord,  who  said  that  he  went  to  battle  as  he  went  to  church. 
He  was  Captain  Davis  of  Acton,  who  reproved  his  men  for 
jesting  on  the  march.  He  was  Deacon  Josiah  Haynes  of  Sud- 
bury,  eighty  years  old,  who  marched  with  his  company  to  the 
South  Bridge  at  Concord,  then  joined  in  the  hot  pursuit  to 
Lexington,  and  fell  as  gloriously  as  Warren  at  Bunker  Hill. 
He  was  James  Hay  ward  of  Acton,  twenty-two  years  old,  fore 
most  in  that  deadly  race  from  Concord  to  Charlestown,  who 
raised  his  piece  at  the  same  moment  with  a  British  soldier, 
each  exclaiming,  "You  are  a  dead  man!"  The  Briton 
dropped,  shot  through  the  heart.  James  Hayward  fell  mor 
tally  wounded.  "  Father,"  he  said,  "  I  started  with  forty  balls  : 
I  have  three  left.  I  never  did  such  a  day's  work  before. 
Tell  mother  not  to  mourn  too  much;  and  tell  her  whom  I 


I  IO  THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

love  more  than  my  mother,  that  I  am  not  sorry  I  turned 
out." 

This  was  the  minute-man  of  the  Revolution,  the  rural  citi 
zen  trained  in  the  common  school,  the  church,  and  the  town 
meeting,  who  carried  a  bayonet  that  thought,  and  whose  gun, 
loaded  with  a  principle,  brought  down  not  a  man,  but  a  sys 
tem.  Him  we  gratefully  recall  to-day,  —  him,  in  yon  manly 
figure  wrought  in  the  metal  which  but  feebly  typifies  his 
inexorable  will,  we  commit  in  his  immortal  youth  to  the 
reverence  of  our  children.  And  here  among  these  peaceful 
fields,  —  here  in  the  county  whose  children  first  gave  their 
blood  for  American  union  and  independence,  and,  eighty-six 
years  later,  gave  it  first  also  for  a  truer  union  and  a  larger 
liberty, — here  in  the  heart  of  Middlesex,  county  of  Lexing 
ton  and  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill,  stand  fast,  Son  of  Liberty, 
as  the  minute-man  stood  at  the  old  North  Bridge !  But 
should  we  or  our  descendants,  false  to  liberty,  false  to  justice 
and  humanity,  betray  in  any  way  their  cause,  spring  into 
life  as  a  hundred  years  ago,  take  one  more  step,  descend,  and 
lead  us,  as  God  led  you  in  saving  America,  to  save  the  hopes 
of  man! 

At  the  end  of  a  century,  we  can  see  the  work  of  this  day 
as  our  fathers  could  not:  we  can  see  that  then  the  final 
movement  began  of  a  process  long  and  unconsciously  pre 
paring,  which  was  to  intrust  liberty  to  new  forms  and  insti 
tutions  that  seemed  full  of  happy  promise  for  mankind.  And 
now,  for  nearly  a  century,  what  was  formerly  called  the  experi 
ment  of  a  representative  republic  of  imperial  extent  and 
power  has  been  tried.  Has  it  fulfilled  the  hopes  of  its  found 
ers,  and  the  just  expectations  of  mankind?  I  have  already 
glanced  at  its  early  and  fortunate  conditions,  and  we  know 
how  vast  and  .splendid  were  its  early  growth  and  devel- 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  Ill 

opment.  Our  material  statistics  soon  dazzled  the  world. 
Europe  no  longer  sneered,  but  gazed  in  wonder,  waiting  and 
watching.  Our  population  doubled  every  fifteen  years ;  and 
our  wealth  every  ten  years.  Every  little  stream  among  the 
hills  turned  a  mill;  and  the  great  inland  seas,  bound  by'the 
genius  of  Clinton  to  the  ocean,  became  the  highway  of 
boundless  commerce,  the  path  of  unprecedented  empire. 
Our  farms  were  the  granary  of  other  lands.  Our  cotton- 
fields  made  England  rich.  Still  we  chased  the  whale  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  took  fish  in  the  tumbling  seas  of  Labra 
dor.  We  hung  out  friendly  lights  along  thousands  of  miles 
of  coast  to  tempt  the  trade  of  every  clime  ;  and  wherever,  on 
the  dim  rim  of  the  globe,  there  was  a  harbor,  it  was  white 
with  American  sails.  Meanwhile  at  home  the  political  fore 
boding  of  Federalism  had  died  away ;  and  its  very  wail  seemed 
a  tribute  to  the  pacific  glories  of  the  land. 

"  The  ornament  of  beauty  is  Suspect, 

A  crow  that  flies  in  heaven's  sweetest  air." 

The  government  was  felt  to  be  but  a  hand  of  protection 
and  blessing;  labor  was  fully  employed ;  capital  was  secure; 
the  army  was  a  jest;  enterprise  was  pushing  through  the 
Alleghanies,  grasping  and  settling  the  El  DoVado  of  the 
prairies,  and  still  braving  the  wilderness,  reached  out  toward 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and,  reversing  the  voyages  of  Colum 
bus,  rediscovered  the  Old  World  from  the  New.  America 
was  the  Benjamin  of  nations,  the  best-beloved  of  Heaven ; 
and  the  starry  flag  of  the  United  States  flashed  a  line  of 
celestial  light  around  the  world,  the  harbinger  of  freedom, 
peace,  and  prosperity.  „ 

Such    was     the   vision    and    the    exuking     faith     of    fifty 
years  ago.     "  Atlantis  hath    risen    from    the  ocean ! "    cried 


112  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Edward  Everett  to  applauding  Harvard ;  and  Daniel  Webster 
answered  from  Bunker  Hill,  "  If  we  fail,  popular  governments 
are  impossible."  So  far  as  they  could  see,  they  stood  among 
the  unchanged  conditions  of  the  early  republic.  And  those 
conditions  are  familiar.  The  men  who  founded  the  republic 
were  few  in  number,  planted  chiefly  along  a  temperate  coast, 
remote  from  the  world.  They  were  a  homogeneous  people, 
increasing  by  their  own  multiplication,  speaking  the  same 
language,  of  the  same  general  religious  faith,  cherishing  the 
same  historic  and  political  traditions,  universally  educated, 
hardy,  thrifty,  with  general  equality  of  fortune,  and  long  and 
intelligent  practice  of  self-government,  while  the  slavery  that 
existed  among  them,  inhuman  in  itself,  was  not  seriously 
defended,  and  was  believed  to  be  disappearing.  But  within 
the  last  half-century  causes  then  latent,  or  wholly  incalculable 
before,  have  radically  changed  those  conditions;  and  we  enter 
upon  the  second  century  of  the  republic  with  responsibilities 
which  neither  our  fathers,  nor  the  men  of  fifty  years  ago, 
could  possibly  foresee. 

Think,  for  instance,  of  the  change  wrought  by  foreign 
immigration,  with  all  its  necessary  consequences.  In  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  to-day,  the  number  of  citizens  of 
foreign  birth  who  have  no  traditional  association  with  the 
story  of  Concord  and  Lexington  is  larger  than  the  entire 
population  of  the  State  on  the  day  of  battle.  The  first  fifty 
years  after  that  day  brought  to  the  whole  country  fewer  immi 
grants  than  are  now  living  in  Massachusetts  alone.  At  the 
end  of  that  half-century,  when  Mr.  Everett  stood  here,  less 
than  three  hundred  thousand  foreign  immigrants  had  come 
to  this  country;  but,  in.the  fifty  years  that  have  since  elapsed, 
there  has  been  an  immigration  of  more  than  nine  millions  of 
persons.  The  aggregate  population  in  the  last  fifty  years  has 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  I  13 

advanced  somewhat  more  than  threefold  ;  the  foreign  immigra 
tion,  more  than  thirty-fold;  so  that  now  immigrants  and  the 
children  of  immigrants  are  a  quarter  of  the  whole  population. 
This  enormous  influx  of  foreigners  has  added  an  immense 
ignorance,  and  entire  unfamiliarity  with  republican  ideas  and 
habits,  to  the  voting-class.  It  has  brought  other  political  tra 
ditions,  other  languages,  and  other  religious  faiths.  It  has 
introduced  powerful  and  organized  influences  not  friendly  to 
the  republican  principle  of  freedom  of  thought  and  action. 
It  is. to  the  change  produced  by  immigration  that  we  owe  the 
first  serious  questioning  of  the  public  school  system,  which 
was  the  nursery  of  the  early  republic,  and  which  is  to«-day  the 
palladium  of  free  popular  government. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  am  not  lamenting,  even  in 
thought,  the  boundless  hospitality  of  America.  I  do  not  for 
get  that  the  whole  European  race  came  hither  but  yesterday, 
and  has  been  domesticated  here  not  yet  three  hundred  years. 
I  am  not  insensible  of  the  proud  claim  of  America  to  be  the 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  of  every  clime;  nor  do  I  doubt  in  her 
maturity  her  power,  if  duly  directed,  to  assimilate  whole 
nations,  if  need  be,  as  in  her  infancy  she  achieved  her  inde 
pendence,  and  in  her  prime  maintained  her  unity.  But  if 
she  has  been  the  hope  of  the  world,  and  is  so  still,  it  is  be 
cause  she  has  understood  both  the  conditions  and  the  perils 
of  freedom,  and  watches  carefully  the  changing  conditions 
under  which  republican  liberty  is  to  be  maintained.  She  will 
still  welcome  to  her  ample  bosom  all  who  choose  to  be  called 
her  children.  But,  if  she  is  to  remain  the  mother  of  liberty, 
it  will  not  be  the  result  of  those  craven  counsels  whose  type 
is  the  ostrich  burying  his  head  in  the  sand,  but  of  that  wise 
and  heroic  statesmanship,  whose  symbol  is  her  own  heaven- 
soaring  eagle,  gazing  undazzled  even  at  the  spots  upon  the 
sun. 


114  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Again:  within  the  century,  steam  has  enormously  expanded 
the  national  domain  ;  and  every  added  mile  is  an  added  strain 
to  our  system.  The  marvellous  ease  of  communication  both 
by  rail  and  telegraph  tends  to  obliterate  conservative  local 
lines,  and  to  make  a  fatal  centralization  more  possible.  The 
telegraph,  which  instantly  echoes  the  central  command  at  the 
remotest  point,  becomes  both  a  facility  and  a  temptation  to 
exercise  command;  while  below  upon  the  rail. the  armed  blow 
swiftly  follows  the  word  that  flies  along  the  wire.  Steam 
concentrates  population  in  cities.  But,  when  the  government 
was  formed,  the  people  were  strictly  rural,  and  there  were  but 
six  cities'  with  eight  thousand  inhabitants  or  more.  In  1790, 
only  one-thirtieth  of  the  population  lived  in  cities:  in  1870, 
more  than  one-fifth.  Steam  destroys  the  natural  difficulties 
of  communication ;  but  those  very  difficulties  are  barriers 
against  invasion,  and  protect  the  independence  of  each  little 
community,  the  true  foundation  of  our  free  republican  sys 
tem.  In  New  England,  the  characteristic  village  and  local 
life  of  the  last  century  perishes  in  the  age  of  steam.  Mean 
while  the  enormous  accumulation  of  capital  engaged  in  great 
enterprises,  with  unscrupulous  greed  of  power,  constantly 
tends  to  make  itself  felt  in  corruption  of  the  press,  which 
moulds  public  opinion,  and  of  the  legislature  which  makes  the 
laws.  Thus  steam  and  the  telegraph  tend  to  the  concentra 
tion  of  capital,  and  the  consolidation  of  political  power,  —  a 
tendency  which  threatens  liberty,  and  which  was  wholly 
unknown  when  the  republic  began,  and  was  unsuspected 
fifty  years  ago.  Sweet  liberty  is  a  mountain  nymph,  because 
mountains  baffle  the  pursuer.  But  the  inventions  that  level 
mountains  and  annihilate  space  alarm  that  gracious  spirit, 
who  sees  her  greater  insecurity.  But  stay,  heaven-eyed  maid, 
and  stay  forever!  Behold,  our  devoted  wills  shall  be  thy 


EXERCISES    IN    THE   ORATION    TENT.  I  IjJ 

'invincible  Alps,  our  loyal  hearts  thy  secret  bower,  the  spirit 
of  our  fathers  a  cliff  of  adamant,  that  engineering  skill  can 
never  pierce  nor  any  foe  can  scale. 

But  the  most  formidable  problem  for  popular  government 
which  the  opening  of  our  second  century  presents  springs 
from  a  source  which  was  unsuspected  a  hundred  years  ago, 
and  which  the  orators  of  fifty  years  since  forbore  to  name. 
This  was  the  system  of  slave  labor,  which  vanished  in  civil 
war.  But  slavery  had  not  been  the  fatal  evil  that  it  was,  if, 
with  its  abolition,  its  consequences  had  disappeared.  It  holds 
us  still  in  mortmain.  Its  dead  hand  is  strong  as  its  living 
power  was  terrible.  Emancipation  has  left  the  republic  ex 
posed  to  a  new  and  extraordinary  trial  of  the  principles  and 
practices  of  free  government.  A  civilization  resting  upon 
slavery,  as  formerly  in  part  of  the  country,  however  polished 
and  ornate,  is  necessarily  aristocratic,. and  hostile  to  republi 
can  equality,  while  the  exigencies  of  such  a  society  forbid 
that  universal  education  which  is  indispensable  to  wise 
popular  government.  When  war  emancipates  the  slaves 
and  makes  them  equal  citizens,  the  ignorance  and  venality 
which  are  the  fatal  legacies  of  slavery  to  the  subject  class, 
whether  white  or  black,  and  the  natural  alienation  of  the  mas 
ter  class,  which  alone  has  political  knowledge  and  experience, 
with  all  the  secret  conspiracies,  the  reckless  corruption,  the 
political  knavery,  springing  naturally  from  such  a  situation, 
and  ending  often  in  menacing  disorder  that  seems  to  invite 
the  military  interference  and  supervision  of  the  government 
—  all  this  accumulation  of  difficulty  and  danger  lays  a 
strain  along  the  very  fibre  of  free  institutions;  for  it  suggests 
the  twofold  question,  whether  the  vast  addition  of  the 
ignorance  of  the  emancipated  vote  to  that  of  the  immi 
grant  vote  may  not  overwhelm  the  intelligent  vote  of  the 


Il6  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

country,  and  whether  the  constant  appeal  to  the  central  hand 
of  power  —  however  necessary  it  may  seem,  and  for  whatever 
reason  of  humanity  and  justice  it  may  be  urged  —  must  not 
necessarily  destroy  that  local  self-reliance  which  was  the  very 
seed  of  the  American  republic,  and  fatally  familiarize  the 
country  with  that  employment  of  military  power  which  is 
inconsistent  with  free  institutions,  and  bold  resistance  to 
which  has  forever  consecrated  the  spot  on  which  we  stand. 

These  are  some  of  the  more  obvious  changes  in  the  condi 
tions  under  which  the  republic  is  to  be  maintained.  I  men 
tion  them  merely ;  but  every  wise  patriot  sees  and  ponders 
them.  Does  he  therefore  despond  ?  Heaven  forbid!  When 
was  there  ever  an  auspicious  day  for  humanity  that  was  not 
one  of  doubt  and  conflict?  The  robust  moral  manhood  of 
America  confronts  the  future  with  steadfast  faith  and  indomi 
table  will,  raising  the  old  battle-cry  of  the  race  for  larger  lib 
erty  and  surer  law.  It  sees  clouds,  indeed,  as  Sam  Adams 
saw  them  when  this  day  dawned ;  but  with  him  it  sees 
through  and  through  them,  and  with  him  thanks  God  for  the 
glorious  morning.  There  is,  indeed,  a  fashion  of  scepti 
cism  of  American  principles,  even  among  some  Americans; 
but  it  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  worst  fashions  in  our  history. 
There  is  a  despondency,  which  fondly  fancies,  that,  in  its  begin 
ning,  the  American  republic  moved  proudly  toward  the  future 
with  all  the  splendid  assurance  of  the  Persian  Xerxes  de 
scending  on  the  shores  of  Greece,  but  that  it  sits  to-day 
among  shattered  hopes,  like  Xerxes  above  his  ships  at  Sala- 
mis.  And  when  was  this  golden  age  ?  Was  it  when  John 
Adams  appealed  from  the  baseness  of  his  own  time  to  the 
greater  candor  and  patriotism  of  this?  Was  it  when  Fisher 
•Ames  mcrurned  over  lost  America,  like  Rachel  for  her  chil 
dren,  and  would  not  be  comforted?  Was  it. when  William 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  I  I/ 

• 

9 

Wirt  said  that  he  sought  in  vain  for  a  man  fit  for  the  presi 
dency  or  for  great  responsibility  ?  Was  it  when  Chancellor 
Livingston  saw  only  a  threatening  future,  because  Congress 
was  so  feeble  ?  Was  it  when  we  ourselves  saw  the  industry, 
the  commerce,  the  society,  the  church,  the  courts,  the  states 
manship,  the  conscience,  of  America  seemingly  prostrate 
under  the  foot  of  slavery  ?  Was  this  the  golden  age  of  these 
doubting  sighs,  this  the  region  behind  the  north  wind  of 
these  reproachful  regrets?  And  is  it  the  young  nation  which 
with  prayer  and  faith,  with  untiring  devotion  and  unconquer 
able  will,  has  lifted  its  bruised  and  broken  body  from  beneath 
that  crushing  heel,  whose  future  is  distrusted  ? 

Nay,  this  very  scepticism  is  one  of  the  foes  that  we  must 
meet  and  conquer.  Remember,  fellow-citizens,  that  the  im 
pulse  of  republican  government  given  a  century  ago  at  the 
old  North  Bridge  has  shaken  every  government  in  the  world, 
but  has  been  itself  wholly  unshaken  by  them.  It  has  made 
monarchy  impossible  in  France.  It  has  freed  the  Russian 
serfs.  It  has  united  Germany  against  ecclesiastical  despot 
ism.  It  has  flashed  into  the  night  of  Spain.  It  has  emanci 
pated  Italy,  and  discrowned  the  pope,  as  king.  In  England, 
repealing  the  disabilities  of  Catholic  and  Hebrew,  it  forecasts 
the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  and  step  by  step  trans 
forms  monarchy  into  another  form  of  republic.  And  here  at 
.  home  how  glorious  its  story  !  In  a  tremendous  war  between 
men  of  the  same  blood,  —  men  who  recognize  and  respect 
each  other's  valor,  —  we  have  proved  what  was  always- 
doubted,  —  the  prodigious  power,  endurance,  and  resources  of 
a  republic  ;  and,  in  emancipating  an  eighth  of  the  population, 
we  have  at  last  gained  the  full  opportunity  of  the  republican 
principle.  Sir,  it  is  the  signal  felicity  of  this  occasion,  that, 
on  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  first  battle  in  the 


Il8  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

war  of  American  Independence,  I  may  salute  you,  who  led  to 
victory -the  citizen-soldiers  of  American  liberty,  as  the  first 
elected  president  of  the  free  republic  of  the  United  States. 
Fortunate  man !  to  whom  God  has  given  the  priceless  boon 
of  associating  your  name  with  that  triumph  of  freedom  which 
will  presently  bind  the  East  and  the  West,  the  North  and  the 
South,  in  a  closer  and  more  perfect  union  for  the  establish 
ment  of  justice,  and  the  security  of  the  blessings  of  liberty, 
than  these  States  have  ever  known. 

Fellow-citizens,  that  union  is  the  lofty  task  which  this  hal 
lowed  day  and  this  sacred  spot  impose  upon  us.  And  what 
cloud  of  doubt  so  dark  hangs  over  us  as  that  which  lowered 
above  the  colonies  when  the  troops  of  the  king  marched  into 
this  town,  and  the  men  of  Middlesex  resolved  to  pass  the 
Bridge  ?  With  their  faith  and  their  will  we  shall  win  their 
victory.  No  royal  governor,  indeed,  sits  in  yon  stately  capi 
tal,  no  hostile  fleet  for  many  a  year  has  vexed  the  waters  of 
our  coasts,  nor  is  any  army  but  our  own  ever  likely  to  tread 
our  soil.  Not  such  are  our  enemies  to-day.  They  do  not 
come  proudly  stepping  to  the  drum-beat,  with  bayonets  flash 
ing  in  the  morning  sun.  But  wherever  party  spirit  shall  strain 
the  ancient  guaranties  of  freedom ;  or  bigotry  and  ignorance 
shall  lay  their  fatal  hands  upon  education  ;  or  the  arrogance 
of  caste  shall  strike  at  equal  rights ;  or  corruption  shall  poison 
the  very  springs  of  national  life,  —  there,  minute-men  of  lib 
erty,  are  your  Lexington  Green  and  Concord  Bridge;  and  as 
you  love  your  country  and  your  kind,  and  would  have  your 
children  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed,  spare  not  the  enemy! 
Over  the  hills,  out  of  the  earth,  down  from  the  clouds,  pour 
in  resistless  might.  Fire  from  every  rock  and  tree,  from  door 
,and  window,  from  hearthstone  and  chamber;  hang  upon  his 
flank  and  rear  from  noon  to  sunset,  and  so,  through  a  land 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    ORATION    TENT.  IIQ 

blazing  with  holy  indignation,  hurl  the  hordes  of  ignorance 
and  corruption  and  injustice  back,  back,  in  utter  defeat  and 
ruin. 


At  ten  minutes  before  one  o'clock,  before  the  close  of  the  oration, 
Mr.  Curtis  paused  at  the  request  of  Judge  Hoar,  who  said,  — 


"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  Concord  always  keeps  faith  with  Lexington.  We 
promised  to  deliver  to  them  the  President  at  one  o'clock ;  and  he  is  therefore 
obliged  to  leave.  Give  him  three  parting  cheers." 


Three  cheers  were  then  given,  which  the  President  acknowledged 
by  bowing  to  the  assembly,  and  with  the  Vice-President,  the  Cabinet, 
Governor  Gaston,  the  Executive  Council  and  Legislature  of  Massa 
chusetts,  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court,  and  several 
others  of  our  guests  who  had  accepted  the  Lexington  invitation,  left 
the  tent. 

A  special  train  had  been  provided  to  convey  this  distinguished 
party  over  the  Middlesex  Central  Railroad  to  Lexington;  but  the 
road  was  hopelessly  blocked ;  and  the  Committee,  in  order  that  all 
the  exercises,  whether  in  Concord  or  Lexington,  might  be  carried  out 
as  far  as  it  was  in  their  power  to  forward  them,  tendered  carriages 
to  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  to  Governor  Gaston  and  the 
Executive  Council.  This  courtesy  was  accepted  by  General  Grant, 
who,  with  his  Cabinet,  was  rapidly  driven  over  the  road  to  Lexington, 
and  by  this  means  arrived  there  in  season  to  review  the  procession,  and 
attend  the  dinner.  Governor  Gaston,  however,  who,  with  the  First 
Corps  of  Cadets  and  the  Legislature,  was  waiting  at  the  depot  for  the 
stipulated  train,  felt  obliged  to  decline  our  offer  of  transportation,  as 
he  did  not  wish  to  leave  his  escort  behind.  After  a  delay  of  somewhat 
over  an  hour,  the  blockade  was  so  far  broken  as  to  allow  one  train  to 
pass  over  the  road,  carrying  those  who  were  anxiously  waited  for  to 
participate  in  the  afternoon  exercises  in  Lexington. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  oration,  the  Fifth  Regiment  M.  V.  M. 
was  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  extending  from  the  platform  entrance  of 
the  oration  tent  to  the  east  entrance  of  the  dinner  tent ;  and  through 
the  lane  thus  formed,  the  invited  guests  were  immediately  conducted 
to  dinner.  At  the  same  time,  the  grand  entrance  on  the  west  was 
opened,  and  the  general  public  admitted. 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  DINNER  TENT. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER   TENT. 


THE  dinner  tent  was  a  magnificent  sight.  Of  new,  snowy  canvas, 
four  hundred  and  ten  feet  in  length,  eighty-five  feet  wide,  and  forty  feet 
in  height,  surmounted  with  flags,  it  was  the  centre  of  attraction.  It 
was  owned  by  Andrew  Erickson  of  Boston,  who  deserves  the  greatest 
credit  for  his  skill  in  spreading  so  large  a  canvas,  and  protecting  it 
from  the  high  winds  that  had  prevailed  for  several  days. 

The  interior  was  profusely  decorated  with  flags,  bunting,  and 
streamers.  Long  pennants  were  festooned  from  the  top  of  each 
pole  to  the  base  of  the  canopy.  On  the  thirteen  tent-poles  were 
hung  as  many  shields  bearing  the  coats-of-arms  of  the  thirteen 
original  states,  and  underneath  each  Shield  two  American  flags  were 
gracefully  looped.  The  following  mottoes  in  conspicuous  letters 
were  hung  on  the  sides  of  the  canvas  :  — 

"  Concordia  res  parvce  crescunt" 
"  Concord  that  elevates  the  mind  and  stills." — WORDSWORTH. 

"  'Tis  still  observed  those  men  most  valiant  are, 

That  are  most  modest  ere  they  come  to  war."  —  HERRICK. 

"  The  first  shot  fired  in  America  separates  the  Colonies."  —CHATHAM. 

"  They  little  thought  how  pure  a  light 

With  years  should  gather  round  that  day, 
How  love  should  keep  their  memories  bright, 

How  wide  a  realm  their  sons  would  sway."  —  BRYANT. 

"  We  find  in  our  dull  road  their  shining  track."  —  LOWELL. 
"Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name,  give  glory.' 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  'Thou  must,' 
The  youth  replies,  '  I  can.'  "  —  EMERSON. 


124  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Tables  to  accommodate  four  thousand  persons  were  placed  in  rows 
running  across  the  tent  from  side  to  side.  On  the  south-easterly 
side,  a  platform  was  arranged,  the  floor  of  which  was  on  the  level  of 
the  ground  tables.  On  this  platform  were  placed  tables  to  accommo 
date  two  hundred  persons.  At  the.  centre  table  were  seated  the 
President  of  the  Day,  the  Orator  of  the  Day,  Mr.  Ralph  Waldo  Emer 
son,  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  and  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Hawley  ;  on  the  right, 
Governor  Ingersoll  of  Connecticut  and  his  staff,  Governor  Dingley  of 
Maine  and  his  staff,  and  Governor  Peck  of  Vermont  and  his  staff ; 
on  the  left,  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell,  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar,  President 
Eliot  of  Harvard  College,  and  other  distinguished  guests.  The 
tables  at  both  ends  of  the  tent  were  filled  by  the  veteran  military 
companies,  and  by  the  Fifth  Regiment  M.  V.  M.  The  whole  centre 
was  filled  by  a  great  concourse  of  ladies  and  gentlemen.  In  front 
of  the  table  of  the  President  of  the  Day  was  placed  a  collection 
of  relics,  among  which  were,  — 

The  sword  of  Captain  Isaac  Davis,  carried  by  him  at  the  old  North 
Bridge. 

The  musket  of  Major  John  Buttrick,  fired  by  him  in  answer  to  his  famous 
order,  "  Fire,  fellow-soldiers !  for  God's  sake,  fire  !  " 

A  sword  taken  by  Nathaniel  Bemis  of  Watertown  from  a  British  officer 
whom  he  shot ;  and  the  gun,  marked  "  David  Bemis,  1775,"  with  which  he  shot 
him. 

The  sword  of  Lieutenant  Davis  of  Bedford,  worn  by  him  at  the  North 
Bridge. 

The  sword  of  Oliver  Wheeler  of  Acton,  worn  by  him  April  19,  1775. 

A  six-pound  cannon-ball,  thrown  into  the  mill-pond  by  the  British,  and 
found  long  afterwards. 

The  sword  of  Lieutenant  James  Potter  of  the  British  marines,  who  was 
taken  prisoner  April  19,  1775,  and  confined  in  the  house  of  Reuben  Brown. 
This  sword  bears  the  inscription,  "  Xth-  Rgt.  Co.  VI.  N°-  10." 

A  British  cartridge-box,  stamped  "  G.  R.,"  taken  from  the  regulars. 

A  powder  horn,  inscribed  "  Concord,  William  Buttrick.     His  Horn,  Sept. 

15,  1774-" 

The  powder-horn  of  Amos  Barrett. 

The  sword  of  Captain  Nathan  Barrett,  carried  by  him  April  19,  1775. 

A  powder-horn  carried  by  Joseph  Chaffin  of  Acton,  at  Concord,  and 
during  the  chase  to  Charlestown  Neck,  and  at  Bunker  Hill. 

A  stack  of  Revolutionary  flint-lock  muskets. 

The  old  flag  carried  by  the  Bedford  minute-men,  mentioned  above  in  the 
account  of  the  procession. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER   TENT.  125 

One  of  the  famous  "  Coffin  handbills,"  styled  "  The  Bloody  Butchery  by 
the  British  troops,  or  the  Runaway  Fight  of  the  Regulars," 

and  various  other  interesting  relics  of  the  fight. 

After  somewhat  more  than  half  an  hour  had  been  spent  in  dining, 
the  American  Band  of  Providence  played  Auld  Lang  Syne,  and  a 
medley  of  patriotic  airs.  The  President  of  the  Day  then  rose,  called 
the  assemblage  to  order,  and  said,  — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  Patriotic  memories  are  the  strength  of  a 
nation.  America,  as  a  nation,  to-day  eijters  upon  her  second  century. 
We  have  assembled  to  celebrate  as  worthily  as  we  may  the  great 
centennial  anniversary  of  the  Revolution.  The  British  parliament  in 
1 774  had  voted  a  law  to  prohibit  the  holding  of  town  meetings  in 
New  England,  except  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  officers.  It  was 
too  late  :  the  town  meetings  had  done  their  work.  The  villages  of 
New  England  had  responded  to  Faneuil  Hall ;  the  discussions  in  the 
towns  had  responded  to  the  fiery  eloquence  of  Adams  and  Otis  ; 
preparations  had  been  made  ;  the  people  had  determined  to  maintain 
their  liberties  at  any  cost ;  and  they  were  waiting  only  for  the  time 
when  by  any  forcible  act  by  which  their  property  should  be  seized,  or 
their  rights  violated,  they  might  be-called  upon  to  defend  both  in  arms. 
And  the  day  came,  —  a  glorious  day  for  Lexington,  for  Concord,  for 
Acton,  for  the  towns  of  Middlesex  and  Essex  and  Norfolk,  for  Massa 
chusetts,  and  for  the  country.  It  was  accidental  only,  that  the  spark 
first  kindled  here  into  a  flame  ;  for  the  whole  country,  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  was  heated,  and  ready  to  flame  at  the  slightest  spark.  And 
when  the  day  came — have  you  considered,  fellow-citizens,  what  a  day 
of  transformation  it  was  ?  The  men  who  were  called  from  their  beds 
at  midnight,  at  the  tap  of  the  drum  at  Lexington,  were  English  colo 
nists.  The  men  who  marched  down  to  the  old  North  Bridge,  saying 
that  they  had  a  right  to  go  to  Concord  on  the  King's  highway,  and 
they  would  go  to  Concord,  were  British  subjects,  claiming  the  rights 
of  Englishmen.  That  was  America  on  the  morning  of  the  igth  of 
April,  1775.  At  night  on  that  day,  the  American  people  were  besie 
ging  in  Boston  a  foreign  enemy,  whom  they  had  driven  in  hurried  and 
ignominious  rout  to  take  refuge  under  the  shelter  of  his  ships-of-war. 
The  American  nation  was  born  that  day.  Every  thing  that  succeeded 
it  in  the  Revolution  was  but  a  corollary  of  this  first  and  primal 
proposition.  At  Philadelphia,  in  1776,  our  fathers  declared  what  had 
already  been  made  a  fixed  fact.  All  the  victories  of  the  war  were 
simply  the  steps  by  which  the  American  people  were  driving  the 


126  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

British  Government  to  an  acknowledgment  of  the  fact,  which  was 
established  as  surely  on  the  igth  of  April,  1775,  as  it  is  established  on 
the  i Qth  of  April,  1875.  When  a  people  have  found  something  that 
they  are  willing  to  die  for;  when  the  humblest  men  among  them,  who 
could  have  gone  on  tilling  their  fields,  working  at  their  trades,  and 
taking  their  comfort  and  ease  in  life,  are.  willing  instead,  for  a  princi 
ple,  for  a  public  object,  as  citizens  who  feel  that  they  have  a  duty  to 
mankind  and  their  country  to  discharge,  to  take  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  and  say,  "  We  will  lay  them  down,  if  need  be,  for  this  object," 
you  have  before  you  a  people  whose  independence  is  secure,  whose 
future  is  certain. 

I  do  not  propose  to  detain  you  to  listen  to  any  speech  of  mine. 
The  nineteenth  of  April,  I  believe,  pervades  me  through  and  through, 
and  I  could  talk  about  it  for  a  week  ;  but  I  do  not  intend  to  do  so.  I 
know  it  is  in  all  of  you  also.  Every  one  of  you  feels  it  as  thoroughly, 
—  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution.  I  offer  as  the  first  regular  sentiment 
of  the  day  :  — 

The  Nineteenth  of  April,  Seventeen  Hundred  and  Seventy-jive :  A  glorious  day  for  Lex 
ington  and  Concord,  for  the  towns  of  Middlesex,  for  Massachusetts,  for  America,  for  free 
dom,  and  the  rights  of  mankind.  "  Every  blow  struck  for  liberty  among  men  since  the  ipth 
of  April,  1775,  has  but  echoed  the  guns  of  that  eventful  morning." 

The  President :  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  left  us  to 
unite  in  the  kindred  ceremonies  at  Lexington  ;  but  we  have  the 
pleasure  to  have  with  us  a  gentleman  whom  I  shall  invite  to  address 
you,  in  whom,  I  may  say,  Pennsylvania  has  undertaken  to  pay  back  the 
debt  which  she  owes  to  New  England  for  giving  her  Benjamin  Frank 
ly  —  a  man  whose  national  fame,  and  right  to  speak  for  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  need  no  introduction  and  no  comment  from  me,  — 
James  G.  Elaine. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  received  with  loud  applause  as  he  rose  to  respond. 


REMARKS    OF    HON.  JAMES    G.  BLAINE. 

MY  modesty  will  not  permit  me  to  accept  the  reason 'given  by  the  honored 
Chairman  of  the  Day  for  calling  me  out  as  the  first  speaker.  It  occurs  to  me 
that  he  was  unconsciously  moved  by  an  entirely  different  consideration.  He 
has  served  recently  in  the  House'  of  Representatives,  where  he  learned,  that, 
on  a  call  of  States,  Maine  always  stands  first ;  and,  owing  to  that  habit,  I 
have  the  great  honor  of  being  presented  to  you.  In  listening,  this  morning, 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  I2/ 

to  the  matchless  eulogy  of  a  matchless  event  in  history,  I  was  struck  by  one 
fact  which  the  gravity  of  the  occasion  forbade  the  eloquent  orator  from 
alluding  to.  They  have  been  searching  these  hundred  years  past  for  reasons 
why  the  first  blow  for  American  liberty  should  have  been  struck  at  Concord ; 
but  I  think  they  have  neglected  the  real,  primal,  instinctive  reason  that 
underlay  the  whole.  The  truth  is,  that  the  people  of  Concord  from  the  early 
settlement  of  the  town  had  been,  to  use  a  somewhat  slang  phrase,  "  spoiling 
for  a  fight."  They  had  the  Apostle  Eliot  among  them  early  to  train  and 
subdue  the  Indians  ;  but  they  relied  a  great  deal  more  upon  their  muskets 
than  upon  his  mild  maxims.  When  the  colonists  got  into  a  row  with  Sir 
Edmund  Andros,  it  was  a  company  from  Concord  that  drove  him  away  ; 
when  King  Philip  attempted  his  ravages,  it  was  Concord  men  that  met 
him  ;  and,  when  the  period  of  the  Revolution  came,  it  was  just  as  inevitable 
that  the  first  conflict  should  come  at  Concord,  as  it  was  that  King  George 
should  insist  upon  the  measures  that  should  drive  the  colonists  to  resistance. 
I  have,  therefore,  had  no  trouble  in  determining  in  my  own  mind,  from  the 
fighting  generations  of  Concord  people  that  I  have  myself  known,  that  here 
was  the  precise  place  where  the  clash  of  arms  should  first  resound.  In 
reading  the  annals  of  the  great  event  tint  we  have  been  celebrating  to-day, 
you  will  find  that  one  of  the  first  things  the  people  of  Concord  did  was  to 
refuse  to  allow  the  royal  judges  to  sit ;  and,  further,  that  they  humbled  the 
Tories.  Lord,  how  I  pity  those  Tories  !  I  believe  the  name  of  a  single  Tory 
that  was  humbled  by  the  Concord  people  has  never  been  recorded  in  history. 
They  never  could  find  out  where  they  went ;  but  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  be 
lieve,  that,  under  the  weight  of  the  humiliation  inflicted  through  the  Concord 
indignation,  every  one  resorted  to  the  better  fate  of  suicide. 

We  have  been  told  by  an  eminent  English  historian  that  there  were  fifteen  de 
cisive  battles  in  the  world.  He  closed  his  history  about  1854.  I  think,  if  he  had 
written  a  little  while  later,  he  would  have  found  a  few  more  decisive  struggles 
to  add  to  the  list.  In  going  over  those  battles,  from  Marathon  to  Waterloo, 
you  get,  in  effect,  the  history  of  all  the  great  powers  that  have  risen  and  have 
fallen,  —  the  Persian,  the  Assyrian,  the  Egyptian,  the  Roman,  and  the  Greek. 
The  great  changes  that  have  come  over  the  face  of  modern  Europe  are  also 
chronicled.  But  there  is  one  list  of  battles  that  has  not  yet  been  gathered 
by  the  historian.  We  are  all  familiar  with  Marathon  ;  we  all  know  what 
Waterloo  did  ;  we  know,  also,  what  was  done  at  Sedan  ;  we  know  what  was 
done  on  our  own  continent,  at  Petersburg,  in  the  Wilderness,  at  Vicksburg 
and  Chattanooga  ;  but  that  list  of  battles  which,  I  may  say,  may  be  classed  as 
those  that  force  the  issue,  whether  in  the  moral,  or  political,  or  military  world, 
have  never  yet  been  classified.  John  Quincy  Adams  fought  one  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  when  he  insisted  upon  presenting  a  petition  for  a 
slave.  That  forced  the  issue,  and  was  the  battle  which  decided  the  right  of 
petition  in  this  country.  A  Pennsylvania  representative  (I  speak  of  it  with 
some  sensibility,  since  my  honored  friend  alluded  to  myself  somewhat  in  that 


128  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

connection)  forced  the  great  issue  of  slavery  in  this  country,  by  moving  a 
proviso  to  a  simple  territorial  bill.  And  what  these  Concord  men  did  was 
simply  to  force  the  issue.  It  was  a  small  battle.  The  men  killed  in  the 
first  fight  —  and,  indeed,  in  the  whole  day's  transactions,  bloody  as  they  were 
—  would  not  amount  to  the  loss  in  a  picket  skirmish  in  the  last  war ;  but 
yet,  it  gave  birth  to  what  ?  To  a  nation,  and  a  nation  so  vast  and  so  grand, 
that,  if  I  were  to  stop  to  survey  what  has  since  transpired,  I  should  want 
more  than  the  week  Judge  Hoar  desired,  to  rid  himself  of  the  impression  of 
the  iQth  of  April.  Why,  we  were  but  three  millions  of  people  then.  The 
House  of  Representatives,  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  serve  in  for  some 
years,  has  to-day  more  than  two  thirds  of  its  members  taken  from  the 
country  where  the  foot  of  the  white  man,  up  to  that  day,  had  never  trodden* 
except  the  adventurous  hunter.  More  than  two  thirds  of  the  entire  House  of 
Representatives  come  from  land  then  undreamed  of  for  settlement.  The  day 
that  gun  was  fired  across  yonder  bridge  there  did  not  exist  on  the  American 
continent  fifty  thousand  white  settlers  fifty  miles  from  the  tide-water  of  the 
Atlantic.  It  was  only  a  narrow  rim  of  people,  stretching  from  Maine  to 
Georgia,  but  not  penetrating  the  interior  at  all.  But  all  this  has  followed,  as 
directly  as  consequence  follows  cause,  from  the  blow  that  was  struck  that  day 
in  the  small  fight  at  Concord  Bridge. 

Gentlemen,  to  allude  to  that  battle,  or  even  to  gather  up  a  single  crumb 
from  the  table  at  which  we  have  fed  so  bounteously  to-day,  seems  to  be  a 
work  of  supererogation,  if  not  of  impossibility.  All  that  remains  to  us,  all 
that  can  remain  to  us,  is  to  see,  that,  one  hundred  years  hence,  we  may  be 
remembered  as  honorably  and  as  indelibly  as  those  whose  deeds  we  this  day 
celebrate.  It  might  possibly  have  been  a  matter  of  doubt  with  us,  but  for 
the  late  terrible  experience  of  this  country,  whether  we  had  within  us  the 
same  heroic  blood  that  fought  and  fell  that  day.  But  happily,  out  of  the 
great  griefs  and  the  great  sufferings  of  our  own  time,  we  know  that  we,  their 
descendants,  have  not  grown  less  strong  in  arm  or  less  dauntless  in  heart 
than  those  that  fought  for  us  then.  It  remains  for  us  to  transmit  to  those  who 
come  after  us  a  record  in  the  line  of  civil  duty,  in  the  line  of  preserving  all 
for  which  that  generation  and  our  own  have  fought,  that  shall  secure  to  our 
descendants,  to  the  remotest  generations,  the  blessings  which  nothing  but 
public  virtue  and  personal  courage  can  give  to  any  people. 


Music:  "America"  and  "Yankee  Doodle." 

The  President :  I  propose  to  present  matters  on  this  occasion  in  a 
somewhat  orderly  and- methodical  manner,  and  I  call  to  mind  that  we 
are  honored  by  the  presence  to-day  of  a  representative  of  the  blood 
of  Paul  Revere  ;  and  that  memory,  as  you  all  know,  belongs  to  the 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT. 


night  before,  and  very  early  in  the  morning  before,  the  events  either 
at  Lexington  or  Concord  ;  and  I  give  you  as  a  sentiment,  — 


Paul  Revcre's  Ride. 

'  A  hurry  of  hoofs  in  the  village  street, 
A  shape  in  the  moonlight,  a  bulk  in  the  dark, 
And  beneath  from  the  pebbles,  in  passing,  a  spark 
Struck  out  by  a  steed  flying  fearless  and  fleet : 
That  was  all.     And  yet  through  the  gloom  and  the  light 
The  fate  of  a  nation  was  riding  that  night  ; 
And  the  spark  struck  out  by  that  steed  in  his  flight 
Kindled  the  land  into  flame  with  its  heat." 


I  ask  the  grandson  of  Paul  Revere  to  stand  up,  and  let  us  see  him. 
He  does  not  make  speeches  any  more  than  his  grandfather  did.  His 
name  is  JOHN  REVERE. 

Upon  Mr.  Revere's  manifesting  himself  to  the  assembly,  he  was 
greeted  with  three  hearty  cheers. 

The  President :  First  of  those  who  fell,  in  our  memory  of  the  day 
we  celebrate,  are  the  martyrs  on  Lexington  Common.  Their  deeds, 
their  immortal  fame,  are  now  being  worthily  celebrated  by  their  neigh 
bors  and  descendants  at  Lexington.  I  give  you  :  — 


Tke  martyrs  on  Lexington   Common,  —  Parker,  Monroe,  Hadley,  the  Harringtons,  Muz- 
zcy,  Brown. 

"  With  us  their  names  shall  live 
Through  long  succeeding  years, 
Embalmed  with  all  our  hearts  can  give, 
Our  praises,  and  our  tears." 


FELLOW-CITIZENS, — No  one  from  Lexington  can  be  found  here 
to-day  to  respond  to  this  sentiment,  as  I  suppose  no  one  from  Con 
cord  could  be  found  at  Lexington  to  acknowledge  any  courtesies  ex 
tended  to  us.  So  be  it.  The  legacy  of  glory  will  go  round,  and  is 
enough  for  all.  But  I  thought  it  fitting  to  send,  and  have  sent,  in 
your  name,  a  message  to  Lexington  from  Concord,  to  this  effect :  — 

"Concord  sends  greeting  to  Lexington  on  the  hundredth  anni 
versary  of  the  glorious  morning,  by  the  hands  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  Great  Republic,  whose  thirty-seven  states  span 
the  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean,  is  the  harvest  of  which  the  seed 
was  sown  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1775." 


I3O  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Music. 

The  President :  And  next  in  memory  are  the  men  who  were  first 
to  fall  at  the  North  Bridge  at  Concord,  — 

Captain  Isaac  Davis,  and  Abner  Hosmer,  a  private  of  his  company  of  Minute-Men  of 
Acton,  the  first  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  an  organized  military  attack  upon  the  soldiers  of 
Great  Britain  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  grateful  country  for  whose  liberties  they  died 
accords  to  them  a  foremost  place  upon  her  roll  of  honor. 

I  invite  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wood  of  Acton  to  respond  on  behalf  of  that 
town. 

ADDRESS    OF   REV.  F.  P.  WOOD. 

I  FULLY  appreciate  the  honor  done  me  on  this  memorable  occasion  in  being 
permitted,  in  the  name  of  the  town  of  Acton,  to  respond  to  this  toast.  But 
without  wasting  words,  when  time  is  most  precious,  who  were  the  men  whose 
names  appear  in  the  toast  just  presented  ?  No  better  reply  can  be  given 
than  that  which  is  found  in  this  sentiment.  They  were  citizen-soldiers  cf 
Acton,  and  Provincial  minute-men,  who,  one  hundred  years  ago  to-day, 
demonstrated  the  quality  of  their  patriotism  by  being  the  first  to  lay  down  their 
lives  in  a  regularly  organized  defence  of  their  country  in  its  just  rights  against 
the  encroachments  of  Great  Britain.  The  Orator  of  the  Day  has  done  such 
ample  justice  to  the  causes  which  led  to  the  Revolution,  which  had  its  real 
beginning  one  hundred  years  ago,  that  to  add  to  it  would  be  superfluous. 

I  will  simply  say,  it  is  very  evident  that  the  town  of  Acton  was  alive  to  the 
importance  of  passing  events,  from  the  fact,  that  in  1770,  and  again  in  1772, 
her  citizens,  in  town  meeting  assembled,  passed  most  emphatic  resolutions 
in  remonstrance  to  the  oppressive  policy  of  the  Biitish  ministry.  That  the 
town  of  Acton  was,  at  least,  abreast  of  the  patriotic  sentiment  of  the  time  is 
also  proven  by  the  fact,  that,  one  hundred  years  ago  to-day,  she  hadihrefe  mil 
itary  companies  thoroughly  drilled,  ready  for  immediate  action,  — drilled,  too, 
at  the  expense  of  the  town,  though  the  town  was  then  poor  in  every  thing  but 
patriotism.  In  these  companies  there  were  enrolled  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  though  the  population  of  the  town  was  but  little  over  half  a  thou 
sand.  In  those  days,  every  one  in  Acton  who  was  able  to  carry  a  gun  was  a 
soldier,  and,  before  the  clay  was  over,  had  a  part  in  the  achievements  which 
are  to-day  celebrated.  •  One  of  these  companies  was  a  choice  one  of  minute- 
men,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Isaac  Davis,  a  fit  leader  for  such  a 
company  of  men, — courageous  and  beloved.  He  was  in  the  flush  of  early 
manhood,  being  only  thirty  years  old,  though  the  father  of  four  children,  all 
of  whom  were  sick  on  the  morning  of  the  eventful  clay.  Abner  Hosmer,  a 
young  man  of  twenty-three,  and  son  of  a  revered  deacon  in  the  Congrega- 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  131 

tional  church,  was  a  member  of  Davis's  company.  In  accord  with  the  re 
commendation  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  the  Acton  companies  had  drilled 
regularly  during  the  previous  winter  and  spring.  It  is,  probably,  the  case, 
however,  that  very  few  of  them  thought  that  a  tilt  of  arms  with  the  troops  of 
King  George  was  really  imminent.  But  one  hundred  years  ago  this  morning, 
before  dawn,  hours  before  the  British  entered  Concord,  a  horseman,  whose 
name  was  never  known,  rode  at  full  speed  up  to  the  house  of  Captain  Rob- 
bins,  the  commander  of  a  militi  i  company,  the  commissioned  officer  of  Acton, 
who  lived  nearest  the  North  Bridge,  and  with  a  heavy  club,  as  it  seemed  to 
those  within,  struck  the  corner  of  the  house,  and  cried  at  the  top  of  his  voice, 
"  Captain  Robbins !  Captain  Robbins  !  Up,  up  !  The  regulars  have  come  to 
Concord.  Quick  as  possible  alarm  Acton  !  "  -In  a  very  few  minutes  the  son  of 
Captain  Robbins,  a  mere  lad,  was  on  horseback,  and  hastening  to  the  house 
of  Captain  Davis,  who  commanded  the  minute-men,  with  the  thrilling  message 
so  m \steriously  given  ;  and  he,  though  his  children  were  sick,  in  an  incredi 
bly  short  time  had  his  company  together,  ready  for  the  march  to  Concord. 
Time  does  not  permit  me  even  to  refer  to  what  took  place  as  the  brave  leader 
and  his  men  set  forth  upon  their  perilous  march.  I  will  only  say  that  his 
whole  manner,  as  he  went  forth,  carried  a  presentiment  that  he  should  never 
return  alive.  At  this  point  allow  me  to  quote  the  words  of  a  poet  who  has 
attempted  to  portray  the  scene  in  verse  :  — 

"  Then  on  the  children  of  this  man  the  flames 
Of  fever  fed,  wasting  their  feeble  frames. 
His  wife  was  worn  with  watching  o'er  their  bed. 
'  And  must  thou  leave  these  children  thus  ? '  she  said. 
'  But  we've  a  Guardian  :  I'll  not  stop  thee,  no  ! 
Thy  country  calls  thee  :  God  is  with  thee,  go  ! ' 
'  Guard  well  these  children  ! '  is  his  brief  reply, 
A  tear-drop  standing  in  the  father's  eye  ; 
When  Acton's  minute-men  to  Concord  sped 
In  martial  order,  Davis  at  their  head." 

So  energetically  did  Captain  Davis  enter  into  the  spirit  of  his  work,  and  so 
promptly  did  his  men  respond  to  his  call,  that,  at  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  this  glorious  day,  he  had  his  company  marshalled  in  line  of  battle  with 
the  Provincial  troops  near  the  old  North  Bridge. 

Here  let  me  quote  a  part  of  the  inscription  upon  the  stately  monument 
which  stands  near  my  home  on  Acton  Common,  over  the  ashes  of  the  three 
citizens  of  Acton  who  fell  mortally  wounded  one  hundred  years  ago  to-day. 

This  monument  was  erected  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts  and  the  town 
of  Acton  as  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  these  heroic  men. 

In  the  inscription  upon  this  monument  appear  these  words  :  — 

On  the  morning  of  that  eventful  day,  the  provincial  officers  held  a  council  of  war  near 
the  old  North  Bridge  in  Concord;  and  as  they  separated  Davis  exclaimed,  "  I  haven't  a 


132  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

man  that  is  afraid  to  go!  "  and  immediately  marched  his  company  from  the  left  to  the 
right  of  the  line,  and  led  in  the  first  organized  attack  upon  the  troops  of  George  III.,  in 
that  memorable  war,  which,  by  the  help  of  God,  made  the  thirteen  colonies  independent  of 
Great  Britain,  and  gave  political  being  to  the  United  States  of  America. 


I  quote  these  words  especially  as  an  authorized  encomium  upon  the  ser 
vices  of  Captain  Davis. 

I  am  happy  that  to-day  there  is  present  on  this  occasion  the  son  of  one  of 
Captain  Davis's  company,  who  proved  without  a  doubt  that  his  father's  patriot 
blood  still  flows  in  his  veins,  by  going  through  Baltimore  with  the  Acton 
company,  under  the  lead  of  Captain  Daniel  Tuttle,  in  the  glorious  Old  Sixth 
Regiment,  which,  in  that  baptism  of  blood,  covered  itself  with  glory  on  the 
iQth  of  April,  1861,  no  less  than  did  their  fathers  on  the  igth  of  April,  1775. 
Truly  the  soul  of  Captain  Davis  was  marching  on  in  this  goodly  company  of 
Acton.  This  man  before  mentioned,  —  Mr.  Luke  Smith, —  whose  father 
fought  at  the  old  North  Bridge,  has  gone  over  the  ground  about  this  sacred 
spot  with  his  father,  and  heard  from  his  lips  the  thrilling  story  which  is  told 
in  a  few  words  upon  the  monument. 

I  would  be  the  last  to  detract  from  the  courage  of  any  of  those  who  were 
engaged  in  the  movement  in  which  the  Acton  men  held  the  post  of  danger. 
They  were  all  of  them  men  of  stout  hearts,  lineal  descendants  of  Puritans, 
who,  when  in  the  way  of  duty,  like  John  Knox,  "feared  not  the  face  of 
man."  Others  will  recount  their  praises  :  to  me  it  is  given  to  speak  simply 
for  the  men  of  Acton.  Captain  Davis  was  the  youngest  commander  of  min 
ute-men.  As  men  advance  in  years,  they  become  more  cautious.  For  the 
very  reason  that  Davis  was  the  youngest  captain,  and  had  a  company  of 
picked  men,  it  might  be  expected,  without  disparaging  the  courage  of  any 
one,  that  he  would  speak  first  as  a  volunteer,  with  his  men,  to  take  the  post 
of  greatest  danger. 

The  orator  of  the  day  has  portrayed  to  us  what  it  was  to  lead  in  the  attack 
one  hundred  years  ago  this  morning.  It  was  to  take  a  step,  which,  though 
long  talked  of  and  threatened,  had  not  really  yet  been  taken.  It  was  to  cease 
to  be  mere  remonstrants,  and  to  become  rebels.  It  was  to  expose  themselves, 
not  simply  to  the  perils  of  battle,  but  to  the  ignominy  of  the  scaffold.  Major 
Buttrick,  Captain  Davis,  Colonel  Robinson,  and  the  Acton  minute-men,  led 
the  column  of  Provincial  soldiers  as  they  took  this  position.  At  the  first  fire 
from  the  enemy,  the  fifer  of  the  Acton  company  was  wounded ;  and  at  the 
first  volley,  Captain  Davis,  in  the  act  of  raising  his  gun  to  take  aim,  was  shot, 
and  instantly  killed.  His  blood  gushed  out  in  one  great  stream:  it  drenched 
his  clothes,  and  these  shoe-buckles  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  fell  as  a 
baptism  of  patriotism  upon  some  of  the  comrades  who  stood  near.  Abner 
Hosmer,  a  member  of  his  company,  fell  at  the  same  volley.  But  these  men 
did  not  die  in  vain.  No,  no  !  The  mantle  of  their  patriotism  fell  upon  their 
fellow-soldiers  ;  and,  before  the  sun  went  down,  the  arrogant  servants  of  a 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  133 

tyrannical  king  learned  to  appreciate  the  might  of  even  yeoman  soldiers 
when  committed  to  the  defence  of  a  righteous  cause.  Members  of  Davis's 
company  were  in  many  of  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  ;  and  one  of  those 
upon  whom  Davis's  blood  fell  went  through  the  whole  war," and  said,  that, 
wherever  he  went,  he  seemed  to  see  that  blood  upon  his  clothes,  urging  him 
to  do  his  duty. 

As  citizens  of  Acton,  we  enter  into  the  spirit  of  this  occasion  most  hear 
tily.  Most  fitting  is  it  that  we  should  eulogize  the  courage  of  those  men, 
who,  one  hundred  years  ago, 

"Fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

Fitting  it  is  that  a  monument  should  mark  the  spot  where  these  heroes 
fought  and  fell.  And  as  the  citizens  of  Acton  were  alive  to  a  sense  of  their 
duty,  and  active  in  the  performance  of  it  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1775,  and 
again  on  the  igth  of  April,  1861,  so  we  trust  that  in  love  of  country,  and 
devotion  to  her  defence,  we  ever  may  prove  ourselves  to  be  not  unworthy 
descendants  or  townsmen  of  those  whose  memories  we  honor  on  this  occa 
sion,  which  is  in  itself  memorable. 

The  President :  I  am  now  going  to  read  to  you  a  very  few  lines, 
but  they  tell  a  story  to  the  American  heart  more  touching  than  any 
thing  to  be  drawn  from  ancient  history  ;  and  the  beautiful  simplicity 
of  the  style  should  make  it  a  classic.  When,  in  her  extreme  old  age, 
the  widow  of  Captain  Isaac  Davis,  who  fell  at  the  North  Bridge,  was 
seeking  to  obtain  from  Congress  a  pension  for  her  husband's  ser 
vices  on  that  day,  her  deposition  was  taken  ;  and  she  told  this  story 
under  oath.  I  will  try  to  get  through  with  reading  it ;  but  I  never  did 
yet  without  breaking  down. 


DEPOSITION    OF    CAPT.  DAVIS'S    WIDOW. 

"  I,  Hannah  Leighton  of  Acton,  testify  that  I  am  eighty-nine  years  of  age.  Isaac 
Davis,  who  was  killed  in  the  Concord  fight,  in  1775,  was  my  husband.  He  was  then  thirty 
years  of  age.  We  had  four  children,  the  youngest  about  fifteen  months  old.  They  were 
all  unwell  when  he  left  me  in  the  morning,  some  of  them  with  the  canker-rash.  The  alarm 
was  given  early  in  the  morning.  My  husband  lost  no  time  in  getting  ready  to  go  to  Con 
cord  with  his  company.  A  considerable  number  of  them  came  to  the  house,  and  made 
their  cartridges  there.  The  sun  was  from  one  to  two  hours  high  when  they  marched  for 
Concord.  My  husband  said  but  little  that  morning  :  he  seemed  serious  and  thoughtful, 
but  never  seemed  to  hesitate  as  to  the  course  of  his  duty.  As  he  led  the  company  from  the 
house,  he  turned  round,  and  seemed  to  have  something  to  communicate.  He  only  said, 
"Take  good  care  of  the  children,"  and  was  soon  out  of  sight.  In  the  afternoon,  he  was 
brought  home  a  corpse.  He  was  placed  in  my  bedroom  until  the  funeral.  His  counte- 


134  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

nance  was  pleasant,  and  seemed  little  altered.  The  bodies  of  Abner  Hosmer  and  of 
James  Hayward,  one  of  the  militia  company  who  was  killed  in  Lexington  in  the  afternoon, 
were  brought  by  their  friends  to  the  house,  where  the  funeral  of  the  three  was  attended. 

HANNAH  LEIGHTON." 

Undoubtedly,  fellow-citizens,  every  one  of  the  thirty-one  towns 
whose  inhabitants  participated  in  the  events  of  the  igth  of  April, 
1775,  would  have  a  story  to  tell,  and  would  desire  that  the  heroes 
of  their  own  neighhorhood  should  receive  particular  honor.  We 
cannot,  the  time  will  not  suffice  to,  render  the  tribute  to  them  in 
detail  and  succession  that  we  would  gladly  do.  In  their  own  towns, 
among  their  kindred  and  descendants,  their  memories  and  names 
are  fresh.  But  to-day  the  names  of  Lexington  and  Concord  must 
.suffice  for  all.  We  take  as  our  model,  in  this  respect,  the  old  Greek 
epigram  :  — 

"  Athenian  ./Eschylus,  Euphorion's  son, 
Buried  at  Gela's  fields  these  lines  declare: 
His  deeds  are  registered  at  Marathon, 
Known  to  the  deep-haired  Mede,  who  met  him  there." 

On  the  battle-ground  from  the  North  Bridge  to  Charlestown  Neck, 
the  men  of  the  Massachusetts  towns  in  arms  did  their  duty  and 
finished  their  work.  Whoever  died  on  that  day,  standing  in  arms  for 
his  country's  defence,  is  a  sharer  in  the  glories  of  the  fight  and  the 
victory. 

We  have  been  honored  to-day  by  the  presence  of  the  Chief  Execu 
tive  Magistrate  of  the  Commonwealth,  of  his  Council,  of  the  Legis 
lature,  of  a  large  number  of  the  high  officers  of  the  state.  With  our 
entire  consent  that  a  due  share  of  the  distinction  of  their  official 
presence  might  be  given  to  the  celebration  at  Lexington,  they  have 
left  us  to  join  with  our  friends  in  that  town  in  their  solemn  cere 
monies.  But  I  invite  to  respond,  on  behalf  of  the  State  of  Massa 
chusetts,  on  this  occasion,  our  senior  Senator,  Gov.  Boutwcll,  whom 
I  am  happy  to  see  at  our  table. 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.  GEORGE    S.  BOUTWELL. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN,  —  The  events  which  we  com 
memorate  to-day  I  had  occasion  to  consider  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  ;  and 
one  fact  I  venture  to  reproduce,  because  it  is  a  great  fact  in  our  history  and 
a  great  fact  in  the  history  of  the  republic.  In  June,  1776,  when  Maryland 
debated  whether  she  would  agree  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER   TENT.  135 

Acton,  in  town  meeting  assembled,  first  of  all  organized  communities  on  this 
continent,  declared  for  an  American  Republic,  and  said  upon  the  record, 
"  This  is  the  only  form  of  government  we  desire  to  see  established." 

I  shall  not  review  the  events  of  the  contest  which  began  on  the  nineteenth 
day  of  April,  1775.  That  day  is  ranked  justly  with  the  great  days  of  Ameri 
can  history.  Its  claim  to  this  distinction  is  admitted.  The  essential  facts 
on  which  the  claim  is  based  belong  to  that  day,  and  'they  relate  to  no  other 
day.  Therefore  its  honors  cannot  be  divided,  its  right  cannot  be  ques 
tioned,  its  pre-eminence  cannot  be  denied.  It  stands  alone.  Like  the  day 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  has  no  rivals.  But  this  eminence 
of  equality  in  fame  with  the  Fourth  of  July  is  not  due  to  the  events  of  the 
day.  The  drama  which  opened  at  Lexington,  and  was  continued  to  Con 
cord,  and  there,  with  characters  changed  and  conditions  reversed,  was  re- 
enacted  on  the  highway  from  Concord  to  Boston,  could  never  have  rendered 
the  day  illustrious,  nor  even  have  made  it  memorable  for  a  century  in  the 
traditions. and  annals  of  a  thoughtful  people. 

Three  municipalities  contend  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  the  day ;  and  to 
those  three  municipalities  the  honor  and  glory  of  the  day  are  first  and 
specially  clue.  Whether  shared  equally  or  unequally,  enough  of  just  fame 
belongs  to  each  to  stimulate  the  ambition  of  every  generation  to  cherish, 
improve,  and  defend  the  institutions  of  the  country,  wh'ich  their  ancestors  had 
so  large  a  part  in  founding.  But  the  ultimate  justice  of  mankind  counts 
nothing  heroic  or  noble  in  action,  that  does  not  proceed  from  right  princi 
ples  and  virtuous  purposes.  Therefore  the  actors  in  the  events  of  the  i9th 
of  April  are  not  to 'be  judged  now  nor  hereafter  by  what  they  did,  but  by  the 
opinions  they  held,  and  by  the  character  of  the  ends  they  sought.  Of  them 
it  can  be  said  that  they  had  no  love  of  military  glory.  They  never  sought 
distinction  on  the  field  of  battle.  But  their  principles  and  their  purposes, 
they  made  known.  The  political  life  of  Massachusetts  was  not  a  secret.  It 
had  been  declared,  it  had  been  laid  open  indeed,  in  the  convincing  state 
ments  and  unanswerable  arguments  of  its  House  of  Representatives  ad 
dressed  to  the  provincial  governors,  through  a  controversy  of  ten  years. 
The  principles  and  purposes  of  the  colonists  had  been  more  than  once  set 
forth  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Boston  in  their  public  meetings  ;  and 
especially  they  had  been  declared  by  the  people  of  the  county  of  Middlesex, 
and  never  better  than  by  the  people  of  the  county  of  Middlesex,  by  their 
representatives  in  convention  assembled  at  Concord,  in  August,  1774. 

First,  as  Englishmen  they  claimed  the  rights  and  liberties  of  Englishmen  ; 
and  then,  secondly,  they  claimed  the  rights  and  liberties  of  Englishmen,  not 
only  because  they  were  Englishmen,  but  for  the  higher  and  better  reason  that 
they  were  men,  and  therefore  could  not  be  deprived  justly  of  those  rights 
and  liberties  by  any  power  whatsoever. 

The  world  had  before  seen  many  contests  against  oppression  and  tyranny, 
because  oppression  and  tyranny  were  disagreeable;  but  it  had  never  before 


136  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

seen  a  contest  for  liberty,  because  liberty  was  a  common  human  right.  It 
was  on  the  breath  of  liberty  that  the  shot  fired  at  Concord  was  heard  around 
the  world  ;  and  its  echoes  will  never  cease  to  disturb  the  dreams  of  tyrants, 
until  liberty  and  equality  —  the  child  of  liberty  —  are  the  possession  of  all. 
By  this  the  iQth  of  April,  1775,  was  rendered  illustrious  ;  and  for  this  the 
iQth  of  April,  1775,  is  memorable  in  the  traditions  and  annals  of  a  thought 
ful  people. 

The  President:  Thank  God,  fellow-citizens,  that  the  sun  of  the 
Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April,  1775,  through 
our  broad  land,  has  neither  risen  upon  a  master,  nor  will  it  set  upon  a 
slave ! 

I  have  to  remind  you  that  the  people  of  New  England  were  ready 
for  the  occurrences  of  the  iQth  of  April,  whenever  they  should  happen, 
for  a  long  time  previous.  The  historical  fact  may  not  be  known  to 
many  of  you,  that  there  was  a  false  alarm,  which  came  pretty  near 
bringing  on  the  conflict  at  a  much  pleasanter  season  of  the  year,  when 
we  should  not  have  been  so  chilly  in  celebrating  it.  Governor  Gage 
seized  a  part  of  the  Province  stores,  which  were  deposited  in  the  edge 
of  Charlestown,  up  near  Winter  Hill,  on  the  ist  of  September,  1774; 
and  the  fact  that  he  had  seized  the  powder  was  circulated  through  the 
Colony,  and  through  the  adjoining  Colonies.  And  what  happened  ? 
Singularly  enough,  almost  as  if  prophetic,  the  report  accompanied 
this  notice,  that  the  soldiers  had  fired  upon  the  people,  and  killed  six 
of  them.  "  The  militia  of  Worcester  County  "  (I  read  from  the  histo 
rian  of  America),  "  hearing  of  the  removal  of  the  powder  belonging  to 
the  Province,  rose  en  masse,  and  began  the  march  to  Boston.  On 
Friday  afternoon  and  Saturday  morning,  volunteers  from  Hampshire 
County  advanced  eastward  as  far  as  Shrewsbury.  On  the  smallest 
computation,  twenty  thousand  men  were  in  motion.  The  rumor  of 
the  seizure  reached  Israel  Putnam  in  Connecticut,  with  the  addition 
that  the  British  troops  had  fired  on  the  people,  and  killed  six  men  at 
the  first  shot.  Sending  forward  the  report  to  Norwich,  New  London, 
New  Haven,  New  York,  and  so  to  Philadelphia,  he  summoned  the 
neighboring  militia  to  take  up  arms.  Thousands  started  at  his  call; 
but  these,  like  the  volunteers  of  Massachusetts,  were  stopped  by 
expresses  from  the  patriots  of  Boston,  who  sent  word  that  at  present 
nothing  was  to  be  attempted." 

On  this  national  occasion  we  are  honored  by  the  presence  of  all  the 
Governors  of  New  England,  and  of  one  or  more  of  the  Governors  of 
the  other  thirteen  original  states.  The  Governor  of  South  Carolina 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  137 

has  been  with  us  to-day ;  and  I  am  sorry  he  is  not  present  now  to 
address  you.  He  has  gone  to  Lexington.  But  I  will  invite  the  hon 
ored  Governor  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  whose  citizens  were  ready, 
under  General  Putnam,  to  respond  with  such  alacrity  a  hundred  years 
ago,  to  let  us  know  that  that  state  shares  in  the  glory  of  the  opening 
of  the  Revolution.  Allow  me  to  present  to  the  audience  Governor 
Ingersoll  of  Connecticut. 


ADDRESS    OF   GOVERNOR   INGERSOLL. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  I  am  at  a  loss  fittingly  to  acknowledge  the  honor 
which  your  distinguished  President  has  done  my  state.  It  is  some  comfort, 
however,  to  know,  that,  when  a  Massachusetts  man  speaks  in  praise  of  Con 
necticut,  he  receives  some  portion  of  his  reward  as  he  goes  along  ;  for  his 
praise  of  Connecticut  reflects  upon  Massachusetts,  whose  child  she  was. 
The  three  vines  which  I  see  yonder,  and  which,  for  nearly  two  centuries  and 
a  half,  have  typified  our  fruitful  existence,  are  only  offshoots  of  that  parent 
vine  which  was  planted  when  the  heathen  were  cast  out  of  Massachusetts 
Bay.  You  know,  Mr.  President,  how  those  offshoots  came  to  shoot  off.  It 
was  a  long  time  after  the  promised  land  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 
was  discovered  before  the  restless  colonists  could  make  up  their  minds  to  emi 
grate.  The  mother  colony  was  very  strongly  averse  to  such  a  secession  ;  and, 
for  many  months  of  prayerful  worry,  the  question  hung  in  the  scales,  until, 
finally,  an  event  occurred  which  caused  the  scale  to  kick  the  beam.  The 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  resolved  that  they  should  not  go  ;  and  being 
the  children  of  Massachusetts,  why,  nothing  else  was  needed  to  determine 
them  to  go  ;  and  they  went.  And  then  sagacious  Massachusetts,  when  she 
found  that  they  were  determined  to  go,  resolved,  in  her  General  Court,  that 
they  might  go,  provided  only  that  they  would  remain  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  her  General  Court.  The  only  reply,  Mr.  President,  that  was  ever  made 
to  that  was  the  vote,  which,  from  that  day  to  this,  has  remained  as  the  corner 
stone  of  the  government  of  Connecticut.  "  We  have  established  a  Com 
monwealth,  the  supreme  power  of  which,  under  Almighty  God,  is  in  the 
freemen  of  our  General  Court."  It  was  the  first  declaration  of  independence 
on  this  continent.  It  was  the  beginning  of  constitutional  government  in 
modern  times.  And,  Mr.  President,  that  has  a  significance  for  this  occasion. 
For,  when  old  mother  Massachusetts  found  her  troubles  gathering  thick  and 
fast  about  her  one  hundred  years  ago,  she  found  at  her  right  hand  this  rebel 
offspring,  equipped  as  no  other  British  colony  was  equipped,  —  with  a  govern 
ment  all  its  own,  automatic ;  with  every  official,  from  Brother  Jonathan  down, 
the  choice  of  her  own  freemen  ;  with  her  treasury  in  her  own  keeping,  her 
militia  subject  to  her  own  order,  and,  back  of  all,  a  body  of  freemen  instinct 


138  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

with  this  inherited  spirit  of  independence.  In  our  generation  we  have  seen 
patriotic  uprisings  ;  but  we  have  seen  nothing  equal  to  what  we  hear  as  hav 
ing  occurred  at  that  time  in  Connecticut,  and  to  which  allusion  has  just  been 
.made  so  touchingly  by  your  President.  When  the  tidings  came,  albeit  by  a 
false  alarm,  that  the  British  general  had  seized  upon  Boston  Town  with  his 
military  arm,  fully  one  half  of  the  arms-bearing  population  of  Connecticut 
were  on  the  roads  leading  to  Massachusetts  Bay.  And  when  the  tidings 
finally  came  in  truth,  that  blood  had  been  spilled  in  the  streets  of  your  village, 
why,  every  function  of  the  government  of  Connecticut  was  set  in  motion. 
Her  Governor  set  the  militia  at  work.  Within  eighteen  hours  from  the  time 
that  Putnam,  then  a  major-general  of  her  militia,  heard  at  Pomfret,  one 
hundred  miles  away,  the  tidings,  he  was  in  the  streets  of  Concord.  More 
than  that :  from  the  treasury  of  Connecticut  was  then  organized  that  expedi 
tion  which  struck  the  first  aggressive  blow  against  the  power  of  Great  Britain, 
and  brought  down  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  "  in  the  name  of  the  Great 
Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress." 

This  day,  Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  is  therefore  historic  in  the  annals 
of  Connecticut  as  it  is  in  the  annals  of  Massachusetts.  It  commenced  with 
us  a  period  from  which,  for  many  anxious  years,  war  was  the  business  of 
Connecticut  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  seminal  principle  of  New 
England  political  life,  —  the  right  of  self-government.  That  is  the  gift  which 
America  has  given  to  the  nineteenth  century.  It  rules  the  civilized  world 
to-day.  Wherever  you  may  look,  whatever  may  be  the  form  of  government, 
public  opinion,  whether  expressed  in  the  ballot,  or  by  any  of  the  manifold 
agencies  of  modern  civilization,  rules  to  day  every  government  in  Christendom. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  pardonable,  and  perhaps  expected,  that,  on  an  occasion 
of  this  sort,  I  should  indulge  in  a  little  vain  glory.  I  fear  that  I  may  have 
abused  my  privilege.  But  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  attention. 


Music. 

The  President :  Fellow-citizens,  what  has  been  said  by  our  friend, 
the  Governor  of  Connecticut,  reminds  me  that  a  part  of  New  England 
was  not  a  state,  or  even  a  colony,  or  a  province  in  1775, —  and 
what  it  was,  except  the  residence  of  a  set  of  pretty  sturdy  patriots, 
who  meant  to  manage  the  place  where  they  lived  in  their  own  way,  I 
do  not  know  that  I  can  describe,  —  but  it  is  now  the  State  of  Ver- 
mdnt.  It  was  then  a  place  that  was  carried  on  "  in  the  name  of  the 
Great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress."  The  Governor  of 
that  State  has  honored  us  with  his  presence ;  and,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Governor  of  Connecticut,  he  has  brought  with  him  a  splendid 
military  company,  as  an  escort,  to  decorate  our  festivities.  I  intro 
duce  Governor  Peck  of  Vermont. 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  139 


ADDRESS    OF  GOVERNOR  PECK. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  will  not  undertake  to  add 
any  thing  to  the  masterly  expositions  which  have  been  given  to-day  of  the 
principles  involved  in  the  event  which  we  commemorate.  I  fear,  if  I  should 
attempt  to  do  so,  it  would  be  but  throwing  dust  in  the  face  of  the  sun.  But 
in  the  maintenance  of  those  principles  I  have  simply  to  say  that  Vermont, 
I  trust,  in  every  emergency,  will  be  true  to  the  motto  which  she  has  engraven 
upon  her  seal,  "  Freedom  and  Unity."  And  a  guaranty  for  that  is  the  tried 
patriotism  of  her  people,  and  the  history  of  her  soldiery  from  Ticonderoga  to 
Appomattox. 

Allow  me,  Mr.  President,  simply  to  express  the  thanks  in  my  own  behalf, 
and  in  behalf  of  the  people  who  have  accompanied  me  on  this  memorial 
occasion,  for  the  courteous  reception  which  we  have  received  at  the  hands  of 
the  citizens  of  Concord  and  its  vicinity.  And  allow  me  to  say  that  we  shall 
ever  cherish,  and  remember  with  pleasure,  the  visit  from  my  beloved  Green 
Mountain  State,  which  was  the  cradle  of  my  infancy,  to  the  good  old  Com 
monwealth  of  Massachusetts,  the  State  of  my  birth. 

Jhe  President :  The  men  of  New  Hampshire  were  on  their  way  to 
Concord  and  Lexington  before  night  on  the  igthof  April,  1775.  New 
Hampshire  has  honored  us  to-day  with  her  official  presence,  and  the 
presence  of  her  citizen-soldiers.  I  will  call  on  Governor  Weston  of 
New  Hampshire. 

Governor  Weston  not  appearing,  the  President  continued,  — 

I  am  afraid  the  propensity  that  was  so  highly  developed  in  the 
people  of  this  region  on  the  igth  of  April,  1775,  to  follow  down  on 
the  track  of  the  British  to  Boston,  has  taken  away  a  good  many  of 
our  friends  from  whom  we  should  be  glad  to  hear. 

The  Governor  of  a  state  from  which  Massachusetts  was  set  off 
about  fifty  years  ago  has  come  up  to  take  the  part  of  that  state  in 
the  old  ancestral  glories,  and  brought  us  that  beautiful  company,  the 
Portland  Mechanic  Blues,  as  bis  guard  on  this  occasion.  I  hope 
that  Governor  Dingley  will  allow  the  audience  to  hear  a  few  words 
from  him. 


ADDRESS    OF    GOVERNOR    DINGLEY. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  —  At  this  late  hour,  it  is  hardly  fitting  that  I  should  oc 
cupy  more  time  than  simply  to  thank  you  for  the  courtesy  which  has  permitted 
my  presence  as  the  representative  of  the  State  of  Maine  upon  this  occasion. 


I4O  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

But,  sir,  you  have  been  pleased  to  refer  to  the  state  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  represent,  as  having,  a  half-century  since,  separated  from  the  parent  Com 
monwealth  of  Massachusetts.  My  friend,  the  Governor  of  Connecticut,  was 
pleased  to  say,  a  few  moments  since,  that  Connecticut  was  the  child  of  Mas 
sachusetts  returning  to  the  old  homestead.  Sir,  I  have  to  remind  you  on 
this  occasion,  that  \\hile  Maine  is  proud  to  proclaim  herself  the  child  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  yet,  sir,  she  did  not  leave  the  old  homestead  until  the  parent 
Commortwealth  was  free  from  her  troubles,  and  could  allow  the  children  to 
leave  home  in  safety. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  pleasant  thought  to  me  (and  I  but  express  the  feelings  of 
the  people  of  the  State  of  Maine,  whom  I  represent  on  this  occasion),  that 
her  sons  stood  by  you  in  the  days  that  tried  men's  souls ;  that  the  glories  of 
Massachusetts  were  her  glories,  and  your  battle-fields  were  her  battle-fields. 
It  is  indeed  grateful  to  me,  and  a  memory  which  the  people  of  the  State  of 
Maine  cherish,  that  old  Massachusetts  is  their  mother ;  that  Concord  is  hers, 
that  Lexington  is  hers,  that  Bunker  Hill  is  hers. 

My  friends,  accept  my  thanks  for  the  courtesy  extended,  and  permit  me  to 
hope  that  the  feelings  which  have  here  been  indulged,  the  uords  which  have 
here  been  expressed,  and  the  patriotic  thoughts  which  have  here  been  uttered, 
may  go  from  one  end  of  this  Union  to  the  other,  animating  the  heart  of 
every  citizen,  and  binding  the  people  of  this  nation  more  closely  together  in 
love  and  friendship. 


The  President:  There  is  one  more  New  England  State,  fellow- 
citizens,  the  little  State  of  Rhode  Island.  I  do  not  know  that  our 
friends  from  that  state  will  like  to  have  that  adjective  precede  the 
name:  so  I  will  say  the  great  State  of  Rhode  Island.  I  regret  that 
the  Executive  of  that  state  has  been  obliged  to  leave  us  too  early  to 
respond  to  the  honorable  notice  which  we  wished  to  take  of  their 
Commonwealth  on  this  occasion.  I  had  hoped,  in  his  absence,  that  I 
might  be  able  to  call  upon  a  man,  who,  I  think,  is  now  seeking  to 
achieve  some  celebrity  as  Major  Burnside  of  the  Providence  Light 
Infantry.  He  has  been  here  in  command  of  that  body  to-day  ;  proba 
bly  a  command,  which,  for  this  purpose,  is  as  high  as  anybody's  ;  'but 
I  think  I  have  heard  the  name  before  on  some  larger  fields,  if  not  of 
more  historic  celebrity.  But  with  the  natural  desire  to  "  kill  two  birds 
with  one  stone,"  and  with  the  feeling  that  Rhode  Island  —  a  state 
which  undertook  to  commence  the  Revolution  about  three  years  before 
it  began,  and  pretty  nearly  did  it,  sending  out,  one  day  in  17/2,  an 
expedition  of  whale-boats  to  seize  the  "  Gaspee  "  —  should  be  heard 
from  on  this  occasion,  it  was  borne  in  upon  me  that  bur  friend  whose 
magnificent  oration  has  stirred  our  souls,  and  touched  our  hearts, 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  14! 

to-day,  —  although  I  introduced  him  as  a  man  whose  youth  was  spent 
in  Concord,  and  who  is  now  an  eminent  citizen  of  New  York, —  is  a 
native  of  Rhode  Island.  I  rather  think  he  has  some  quality  which 
would  enable  him  adequately  to  represent  any  state  in  the  Union.  I 
introduce  the  orator  of  the  day,  Mr.  Curtis. 


ADDRESS    OF    GEORGE   WILLIAM    CURTIS. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  CONCORD,  OF  MIDDLESEX 
COUNTY,  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  OF  THE  UNION,  —  I  see,  what  you  may  not,  the 
deep  malevolence  of  the  President  of  the  Day.  For  as  he  knows  that  in  the 
unequal  contest  of  my  voice  with  a  hundred  bands  of  music  and  a  cracking 
platform,  that  voice  got  irretrievably  the  worst  of  it,  in  revenge  for  holding  so 
many  of  my  fellow-citizens  for  more  than  an  hour  in  the  cold,  the  President 
of  the  Day,  with  malicious  intent,  is  resolved  to  make  an  end  of  that  voice 
altogether.  But,  sir,  when  the  name  of  Rhode  Island  is  mentioned,  every  son 
of  Rhode  Island  falls  into  line.  Little  in  size,  but  great  in  soul !  Like  the 
minute-men  of  one  hundred  years  ago,  who  marched  to  the  North  Bridge 
under  three  leaders,  so  Rhode  Island  always  marches  under  her  three  his 
torical  men,  —  Roger  Williams,  Dr.  Channing,  and  Gen.  Greene,  the  friend 
of  Washington.  Little  in  size,  but  great  in  soul !  for  the  founder  of  Rhode 
Island  was  the  first  man  among  the  founders  of  States  who  ever  asserted 
absolute  religious  liberty  as  the  truest  foundation  of  human  society. 

Fellow-citizens,  as  I  stand  here  in  Middlesex  County  on  a  day  devoted  to 
Revolutionary  remembrances,  it  is  my  pleasure  to  remember  that  when  the 
first  regiment  from  Massachusetts  marched  to  the  late  war,  when  it  was  pass 
ing  through  the  city  of  New  York,  a  friend  of  mine  joined  a  soldier  on  the 
march,  and  said  to  him,  "  Well,  my  friend,  what  part  of  the  old  Common 
wealth  do  you  come  from  ?"  And  that  soldier,  whose  ear  for  music,  I  take 
it,  was  not  very  good,  anxious  to  answer  the  question  while  he  still  kept  time 
to  the  drum-beat,  answered  my  friend  as  he  marched  on,  "  From  Bunker 
Hill,  from  Bunker  Hill,  from  Bunker  Hill."  And  so,  fellow-citizens,  I  think 
we  may  take  this  lesson  from  this  day,  and  the  spot  on  which  we  stand,  —  that 
every  American  citizen,  whatever  the  summons  may  be,  when  it  is  a  sum. 
mons  to  march  for  liberty,  may  reply,  when  asked  from  what  part  of  this 
Union  he  takes  his  departure,  not  from  Maine,  from  Florida,  from  Massa 
chusetts,  from  Rhode  Island,  from  Virginia,  from  Illinois,  from  Nevada,  from 
Oregon  :  let  him  say  only,  "  From  Concord  Bridge,  from  Concord  Bridge, 
from  Concord  Bridge,"  and  then  the  whole  world  will  know  that  he,  too,  is 
marching  to  victory. 

77/6'  President:  I  hope  it  will  be  always  as  true  as  it  was- one  hun 
dred  years  a^o,  if  a  man  should  be  asked,  when  he  is  marching  to  fight 


142 


THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 


or  die  in  the  service  of  his  country,  from  what  part  of  Massachusetts 
he  came,  that  he  might  answer,  "  From  the  whole  of  it ;  "  and  it  would 
not  be  a  very  hard  thing  to  say  of  Rhode  Island. 

We  have  here,  to  which  I  must  call  attention,  a  good  many  Revolu 
tionary  relics.  You  have  had  already  shown  to  you  what  is  left  of 
the  sword  —  broken  off,  a  foot  of  it,  and  the  point  sharpened  —  that 
Isaac  Davis  carried  at  the  North  Bridge.  There  is  before  me  a 
sworci  taken  by  Nathaniel  Bemis  of  Watertown  from  a  British  officer 
whom  he  himself  shot ;  and  the  gun  is  here  with  which  he  shot  him. 
The  sword  bears  the  legend,  and  the  gun  has  on  the  breech,  "  David 
Bemis,  I/75-"  But,  gentlemen,  I  hold  in  my  hand  one  sacred  relic, 
whose  historic  glory  is  unsurpassed.  Little  local  jealousies  may  exist 
among  neighboring  towns  as  to  the  particular  share  that  this  or  that 
spot  had  in  this  great  American  day.  The  title  of  Concord  North 
Bridge  rests  upon  one  unquestioned  fact :  that  there  first,  by  a  duly 
commissioned  officer  in  command  of  soldiers,  an  order  to  the  soldiers 
of  the  people  to  fire  upon  the  soldiers  of  the  King  was  given,  and  was 
obeyed.  Major  John  Buttrick  of  Concord,  whose  gun  I  hold  in  my 
hand,  gave  the  order  to  fire,  and  fired  this  gun,  his  own  gun  that  he 
held  in  his  hand,  in  execution  of  his  own  order;  and  it  was  the  first 
gun  fired  in  obedience  to  military  authority  in  the  war  of  the  Revo 
lution.  Fifty  years  ago,  when  Lafayette  visited  the  United  States, 
this  gun  was  shown  to  him,  and  this  story  told  him.  He  grasped  and 
held  it  up  over  his  head,  and  said  it  was  "  the  alarum  gun  of  liberty 
throughout  the  world." 

I  have  already  said  to  yo'u  that  I  considered  the  independence  of 
America  as  assured  by  what  took  place  between  the  North  Bridge 
and  Charlestown  Neck  one  hundred  years  ago.  It  made  conciliation 
impossible,  and  independence  certain.  Lord  Chatham  had  already 
prophesied  in  the  British  parliament,  in  January,  1775,  that  the  first 
drop  of  blood  shed  in  civil  and  unnatural  war  might  be  a  wound  that 
never  could  be  cured.  He  put  into  that  speech  a  recommendation  to 
the  ministry,  which,  read  in  the  light  of  this  day,  sounds  curiously 
enough,  although  not  in  the  meaning  which  he  gave  to  it.  He  intro 
duced  into  the  British  parliament  a  resolution  calling  on  the  King  to 
withdraw  his  troops  from  Boston.  It  did  not  pass  :  it  received  but  a 
few  votes  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In  the  course  of  that  speech, 
he  said  that  he  advised  the  ministry  "  to  make  the  first  advances  to 
Concord."  And  Gen.  Gage  made  them.  You  know  how  they  turned 
out. 

Now,  my  friends,  although  this,  as  we  all  know,  is  the  great  centen- 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  143 

nial,  some  allusion  was  made  by  the  orator,  in  an  oratorical  spirit, 
undoubtedly,  to  the  Fourth  of  July.  He  knows  that  comes  this  year 
and  next,  and  we  think  very  well  of  the  Fourth  of  July.  It  is  a  nat 
ural  deduction  from  the  iQth  of  April;  and  whoever  gets  the  spirit  of 
the  i Qth  of  April  may  be  trusted  anywhere  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 
My  friend  General  Hawley,  late  Governor  Hawley  of  Connecticut, 
entitled  to  memory  as  General  Hawley  of  the  late  war,  Chairman  of 
the  National  Centennial  Commission,  is  here ;  and  I  am  sure,  if  any 
body  can  say  any  thing  in  favor  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  he  can  say  it, 
and  I  should  like  to  hear  from  him  on  that  subject. 


ADDRESS    OF    GENERAL    HAWLEY. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  Mr. 
Boutwell  and  the  Chairman  for  the  few  kind  words  they  have  said  for  the 
Fourth  of  July.  I  began  to  fear  it  hadn't  any  friends,  even  in  old  Massachu 
setts.  The  temptation  to  every  speaker  is,  of  course,  to  dwell  somewhat  upon 
the  day,  and  the  events  that  belong  to  it.  I  must  pass  that  by  for  the  duty 
more  especially  devolving  upon  myself. 

I  was  just  looking  at  a  newspaper  account  of  the  circumstances  that  fol 
lowed,  in  my  own  State,  this  iQth  of  April,  as  the  courier,  Isaac  Bissell,  gal 
loped  down  through  the  State  of  Connecticut,  getting  a  fresh  horse  in  every 
town,  and  receiving  upon  his  paper  the  receipt  of  some  of  the  leading  citi 
zens.  The  alarm  spread  through  the  State  ;  and  forty-seven  towns  started 
out  ninety-three  companies,  containing  thirty-six  .hundred  men,  for  Boston. 
In  many  cases,  citizens  started  out  alone.  I  know  the  story  of  old  James 
McLane,  young  James  McLane  then,  of  Glastenbury.  He  was  one  of  the 
minute-men  our  orators  have  so  grandly  described.  I  suppose  he  was  not  a 
great  scholar  or  learned  man.  Perhaps  he  ought  to  have  stopped  to  think 
about  this  :  he  ought  to  have  reflected,  that,  in  some  mysterious  way,  culture 
would  redeem  this  world  without  fighting,  and  remained  at  home,  and  smoked 
his  pipe.  But  James  was  a  plain  man.  His  gun  was  out  of  order :  his  new 
shoes  were  not  ready.  James  went  over  to  his  shoemaker,  and  told  him  they 
must  be  done  before  night.  He  walked  five  miles  to  a  gunsmith's,  and  had 
his  musket  put  in  order  ;  and  the  next  morning,  with  his  new  shoes  and 
repaired  musket,  and  a  proper  allowance  of  powder  and  ball,  James  started 
for  Boston,  and  came  home  at  the  end  of  the  war  as  Captain  James  McLane. 
He  was  one  of  the  minute-men,  one  of  the  thirty-six  hundred  that  Connecti 
cut  started  as  soon  as  she  got  the  word.  And,  wherever  Massachusetts  was 
found  in  the  struggle,  Connecticut  was  by  her  side. 

But  I  must  not  dwell  upon  the  reminiscences  that  come  into  my  mind  in 
connection  with  these  events.  I  am  very  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  say  a 


144  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

word  to  you  concerning  the  great  International  Exposition  and  National 
Celebration  next  year.  It  was  inevitable  that  there  should  be  such  a 
celebration.  You  could  not  have  kept  Concord  and  Lexington  from  celebrat 
ing  this  day.  But,  while  we  all  claim  a  certain  share  in  it,  the  nation  has 
adopted  the  Fourth  of  July  as  the  national  holiday,  the  great  day  in  which 
all  these  glories  are  garnered  into  one,  the  prophesied  day  of  John  Adams, 
of  bonfires  and  illuminations  and  bell-ringing. 

You  could  not  have  carried  this  people  by  it  without  some  sort  of  national 
celebration  It  became  quite  appropriate  and  natural  that  there  should  be 
on  that  day,  to  apply,  perhaps,  a  phrase  below  the  dignity  of  the  affair,  some 
thing  like  taking  an  account  of  stock  of  our  possessions  and  our  great  pro 
gress,  —  a  comparison  of  the  America  of  1876  witn  the  America  of  1776.  You 
know  we  should  have  got  not  only  this  interesting  collection  of  relics,  but 
thousands  of  others  like  them,  representing  the  progress  of  the  whole  art  of 
war  up  to  that  time,  —  the  great  guns  and  the  small  guns,  and  the  ships  and 
implements  of  war;  and  quite  naturally  we  should  have  placed  by  their  side 
the  implements  which  would  be  used  in  a  war  to-day,  —  the  improved  guns, 
the  modern  appliances,  the  models  of  our  ships  j  and  we  should  have  had  a 
great  exhibition.  Here  is  a  part  of  it  now.  When  you  begin  to  talk  of  a 
national  celebration,  you  will  fill  a  building  with  things  of  this  kind. 

But  there  is  a  new  battle  to  be  fought,  a  new  time  coming.  The  work 
of  the  next  century  is  not  to  be  the  work  of  the  last.  The  world  is  to  be 
better  one  hundred  years  hence  than  it  is  now.  The  time  was  one  hundred 
years  ago  when  you  must  pour  out  blood  to  save  the  right.  We  will  learn  in 
the  next  one  hundred  years  to  save  the  blood  and  the  right  also,  that  the 
world  may  live  in  peace.  The  arts  of  peace  are  to  be  glorified.  Massachu 
setts  does  not  look  backward  forever,  but  only  to  take  inspiration  for  the 
future.  We  shall  gather  in  this  great  exhibition  all  that  shows  our  prowess 
•  in  a  hundred  battle-fields.  The  soldier  is  not  king  always.  I  take  off  my 
hat  when  I  go  into  the  great  machine-shops,  in  the  presence  of  my  master, 
the  mechanic  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Now  we  want  in  this  exhibition 
samples  of  the  skill  of  the  workmen  in  the  textile  fabrics,  in  iron  and  steel, 
the  work  of  the  painter  and  sculptor,  specimens  of  our  soils  and  minerals  : 
we  want  collected  there  every  thing  that  will  show  the  wonderful  resources 
of  this  continent,  and  to  ask  all  our  people  to  come  together  during  those 
six  months,  and  shake  hands,  and  thank  God  for  what  he  has  done  for  us, 
and  take  courage  for  the  future. 

I  might  dwell  upon  the  material  benefits  of  this  exposition  ;  but,  as  I  have 
thought  of  it,  its  moral  benefits  rise  still  greater  to  my  sight.  You  cannot 
meet  here  without  some  necessity  for  shaking  hands  over  some  of  the  old 
dissensions.  I  find  -Lexington  a  little  jealous  of  Concord,  and  Concord  of 
Lexington,  and  Acton  of  both  ;  and  you  have  these  little  controversies  and 
disputes.  When  the  great  War  of  Independence  was  over,  your  towns  were 
full  of  Tories;  and  you  had  to  b-j  reconciled  to  them.  We  in  this  country  have 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  145 

been  through  a  struggle,  of  which  we  cannot  speak  without  great  pride,  to  be 
sure,  and  gratitude  to  Almighty  God ;  but  so  terrible  was  it,  that  no  man 
approached  the  thought  of  it  but  with  the  most  serious  reflections.  We  want, 
in  this  great  celebration  and  exhibition  of  1876,  all  our  Southern  friends 
there,  that  we  may  shake  hands  with  the  men  of  the  South.  Reconciliations 
are  not  always  made  by  orations  and  by  platforms,  by  letters  and  addresses. 
When  you  have  quarrelled  with  your  brother,  it  is  often  just  as  well  to  say 
nothing,  but  let  the  eye  and  the  hand  settle  it,  and  let  the  past  be  buried. 
Our  friends  of  the  South  will  not  contribute  greatly  to  the  material  display 
of  that  exhibition  ;  but  we  of  the  North  must  do  it  largely,  mostly.  But  let 
from  Massachusetts,  from  New  England,  from  all  the  North,  go  out  such  a 
voice  of  welcome  and  entreaty  to  them  to  come,  that  they  must  be  there. 

The  influence  of  the  exhibition  is  not  confined  to  this  land  alone.  Having 
a  national  exhibition,  and  having  been  invited  to  all  the  national  ones  on 
the  Eastern  Continent,  we  could  not  hold  one  without  inviting  foreigners  ;  and 
they  are  coming  from  the  great  civilized  nations,  and  from  many  we  have 
treated  as  half-civilized  and  barbarous.  They  are  all  coming.;  some  with 
a  display  that  will  astonish  you  in  your  pride  as  American  mechanics  and 
artists.  You  may  lose  something  of  your  vanity  ;  but  you  can  be  instructed 
and  benefited.  They  will  be  there  as  our  fellow-men,  as  our  friends.  Our 
British  friends  will  be  there  with  a  great  display.  In  the  first  place,  they 
cannot  afford  to  stay  away  from  this,  their  great  market.  In  the  second  place, 
their  good-will  is  with  us  to-day.  There  is  not  a  statesman  in  that  land  who 
does  not  think  it  is  just  as  well  that  we  left  them  at  the  time  we  did,  and  is 
not  proud  of  us,  as  an  English-speaking  nation,  with  rights  and  liberties  born 
of  English  soil.  They  are  our  friends  and  neighbors. 

The  theme  enlarges  as  you  dwell  upon  it.  Massachusetts  has  had  the 
glory  of  leading  off  in  the  great  series  of  centennial  celebrations.  I  beg  of 
Massachusetts  men  to  take  into  consideration  the  great  national  celebration 
of  1876.  We  have  in  process  of  construction  over  fifty  acres  of  buildings 
on  the  finest  site  ever  selected  for  such  a  purpose.  Our  contracts  are  made 
for  the  earliest  construction  with  the  heaviest  penalties.  There  never  was  so 
fine  an  arrangement  made  for  bringing  goods  and  people  together  as  under 
those  roofs.  The  exhibition,  I  tell  you  seriously,  will  be  the  finest  the  world 
has  ever  seen.  It  may  be  one  hundred  per  cent  better  than  we  think  it  will 
be,  if  you  say  it  is  to  be,  and  the  world  will  come  and  see.  Your  national 
honor  is  committed  to  it  ;  and  let  America  see  that  the  exhibition  is  not  one 
that  she  can  in  any  respect  be  ashamed  of. 


The  President :  On  the  22cl  of  August,  1775,  the  overseers  of  Har 
vard  College  met,  and,  having  read  the  report  of  a  committee  pre 
viously  appointed,  unanimously  voted,  "  That  it  is  of  great  importance 
that  the  education  of  the  youth  in  this  Colony  in  piety  and  good 


146  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

literature  should  be  carried  on  with  as  little  interruption  as  may  be ; 
that  the  education  of  the  scholars  of  Harvard  College  cannot  be 
carried  on  at  Cambridge  while  the  war  in  which  we  have  been  forced 
to  engage  for  the  defence  of  our  liberties  shall  continue  ;  and,  there 
fore,  that  it  is  necessary  that  some  other  place  should  be  speedily 
appointed  for  that  purpose."  The  committee,  reported  as  their 
opinion,  that  Concord  was  a  town  suitable  for  the  purpose;  and  one 
of  the  results  of  the  igth  of  April  was  the  removal  of  Harvard 
College  from  Cambridge  to  Concord,  where  it  staid  about  a  year. 
The  chill  of  the  weather,  I  am  afraid,  has  deprived  me  of  the  oppor 
tunity  of  calling  upon  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  College  to  reply 
to  the  following  sentiment :  — 

Harvard  College:  Its  founding  was  said  to  have  hastened  the  American  Revolution  fifty 
years. 

Now,  fellow-citizens,  there  are  but  two  things  more  to  which  I  wish 
to  ask  your  attention  before  parting.  I  cannot  go  over  these  relics 
lying  on  the  table  before  me,  in  detail.  We  have  a  pair  of  scissors 
with  which  all  the  cartridges  were  cut  that  were  used  here  on  the 
1 9th  of  April,  1775  ;  and  the  son  of  the  young  lady  who  used  them 
at  that  time  has  sent  them  on.  He  mended  them  himself  sixty-three 
years  ago,  and  had  them  from  his  mother  with  their  curious  story- 
Here  is,  also,  an  old  silver  tankard  of  the  date  of  1700,  that  was  buried 
in  a  barrel  of  soft  soap  when  the  British  came  to  Concord  in  1775,  by 
way  of  preservation.  Here  are,  also,  powder-horns,  swords,  and  guns, 
which  were  borne  on  that  day.  In  the  procession  to-day,  carried  by 
the  town  of  Bedford,  has  been  a  flag  which  was  carried  on  the  iQth  of 
April,  1775. 

As  a  close  to  the  particular  memories  of  the  occasion,  I  wish  to 
give  you  as  a  sentiment :  — 

Lexington  and  Concord,  and  the  memory  of  Col.  James  Barrett,  Major  John  Buttrick, 
and  Lieut. Col.  John  Robinson. 

"  In  pride,  in  all  the  pride  of  woe, 
We  tell  of  them,  the  brave  laid  low, 

Who  for  their  birthplace  bled  : 

In  pride,  the  pride  of  triumph  then, 

We  tell  of  them,  the  matchless  men 

From  whom  the  invaders  fled." 

We  have  received  from  men  eminent  in  public  station,  and  honored 
throughout  the  country,  many  letters  in  reply  to  invitations  to  be 


EXERCISES    IN    THE    DINNER    TENT.  147 

present,  which  it  would  have  given  me  pleasure  to  read  to  the  assem 
bled  company.  But  the  chill  in  the  air  has  been  too  much  for  us  ;  and 
I  will  not  detain  you  by  reading  more  than  one.  That  one  is  of  such 
a  representative  character  in  connection  with  the  memories  of  this 
occasion,  that  I  desire  to  lay  it  before  you  now.  It  begins  with  an 
excuse  by  the  writer,  for  having  failed  to  receive  his  invitation  sea 
sonably  enough  to  make  arrangements  to  attend. 

"WASHINGTON,  April  16,  1875. 

Please  consider  me  as  sincerely  grateful  for  the  honor  implied  in  the 
invitation  extended  me,  and  accept  my  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  the 
proposed  celebration.  The  opening  •  of  the  Revolutionary  War  was  the 
opening  of  this  continent  to  a  higher  and  purer  liberty  than  the  world  had 
known  before,  —  a  liberty  in  presence  of  which  no  privileged  classes  of 
wealth  or  religion,  race  or  color,  can  long  endure. 

Fully  appreciating  the  kindness  and  significance  of  the  invitation  ex 
tended  me,  I  am, 

With  great  respect,  yours  truly, 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS." 

If  there  is  any  one  of  our  friends  who  desires  to  add  a  word,  or  has 
any  particular  suggestion  or  memory,  I  invite  him  now  to  address 
you :  otherwise  he  will  have  to  await  his  next  opportunity  at  the  next 
centennial,  at  which  I  am  very  sure  I  shall  not  preside. 

A  Citizen:  May  I  be  allowed  to  repeat  a  sentiment  which  was 
given  fifty  years  ago  to-day  by  a  citizen  of  this  town  ?  It  was  this  : — 

"  The  Tree  of  Liberty:  May  it  take  deep  root,  and  grow  until  its  branches  shall  cover  the 
whole  earth." 

The  exercises  then  closed,  and  the  company  dispersed. 


From  the  many  letters  received  from  distinguished  men,  accepting 
the  invitation  to  attend  the  celebration,  or  regretting  their  inability 
to  be  present,  the  following  are  selected  for  publication  :  — 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  April  3,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  It  is  with  much  regret,  that,  in  behalf  of  my  brethren  and 
myself,  I  write  to  say,  that  it  will  be  out  of  our  power  to  accept  the  invi- 


THE    CONCORD    CENTENNIAL. 

tation  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Concord  to  unite  with  them  in 
celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary 
War. 

I  beg  you  to  be  assured,  that  nothing  less  than  the  demands  of  the  very 
important  business,  which  requires  the  attention  of  the  court  before  its 
adjournment  on  the  third  of  next  month,  could  have  induced  us  to  forego  the 
pleasure  of  participating  in  the  commemoration  of  that  great  historical  event 
on  the  spot  where  it  came  to  pass. 

Very  gratefully  yours, 

M.  R.WAITE. 
MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  G.  HEYWOOD,  Committee. 


HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
ST.  Lpuis,  Mo.,  Dec.  7,  1874. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  beau 
tiful  card  of  invitation  to  be  present  as  the  guest  of  the  town  of  Concord, 
Mass.,  on  the  iQth  of  April,  1875,  to  assist  in  celebrating  the  centennial 
anniversary  of  the  opening  event  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Although  a  slip  which  accompanies  the  card  does  not  contemplate  an 
answer  earlier  than  April  i,  1875,  I  cannot  risk  the  delay,  lest  it  then  be 
overlooked,  and  prefer  now  to  thank  you  truly  for  including  my  name  among 
the  honored  guests.  I  can  hardly  promise  myself  the  pleasure  to  share  in 
the  festivities  of  the  occasion  ;  but  I  assure  you,  that,  if  I  happen  to  be  east 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  next  spring,  I  will  endeavor  to  time  my'  visit  so 
as  to  see  the  place  where  the  people  first  had  the  hardihood  to  defend  with 
arms  their  property  against  a  detachment  of  the  British  army.1 

With  great  respect,  most  truly  your  friend, 

W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General. 
MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD,  Committee. 


AMESBURY,  MASS.,  i2th  4th  mo.,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Your  invitation  to  the  celebration  of  the  centennial  anni 
versary  of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  Concord,  has  been 
received. 

It  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  accept  your  invitation.  Lifelong  habit  and 
the  state  of  my  health,  alike  deter  me  from  joining  the  great  multitude  which 
the  occasion  will  call  together.  As  a  son  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  a  friend 
of  human  freedom,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  associations  of  the  place  and 
the  time.  I  recognize  and  rejoice  in  the  results  of  the  great  struggle  com 
menced  in  two  small  villages  of  my  native  state  one  hundred  years  ago. 

1  Pursuant  to  the  promise  contained  in  this  letter  Gen.  Sherman  visited  Concord  on  June  18,  1875,  and 
was  received  by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  and  escorted  to  the  battle-ground  by  a  large  body  of  citizens. 


LETTERS.  149 

But  I  am  sure  you  will  unite  with  me  in  the  hope,  that,  long  before  the  next 
centennial  of  the  event  which  has  made  your  town  famous  the  world  over,  all 
disputes  of  governments  and  peoples  will  be  referred  to  peaceful  arbitrament, 
and  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  nor  the  people  learn  war 
any  more.  I  am  very  truly  your  friend, 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER. 

To  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  G.  HEYWOOD,  Committee. 

HEADQUARTERS  MILITARY  DIVISION  OF  THE  ATLANTIC, 
NEW  YORK,  i3th  April,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  polite 
.invitation  to  myself  and  staff  to  be  the  guests  of  the  inhabitants  of  Concord 
on    the    iQth   inst,  and    to  join   with  them    in  celebrating   the    centennial 
anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

The  occasion  is  one  of  deep  interest  to  every  American.  Nothing  was 
permitted  by  the  minute-men  of  Concord  to  interfere  with  their  performance 
of  great  deeds.  To  take  part  in  commemorating  the  services  of  these 
pioneers  of  our  liberties  is  an  honor  and  a  pleasure  that  I  only  forego  with 
sincere  regret. 

But  a  recent  domestic  affliction  will  not  permit  my  acceptance  of  your 
kind  invitation ;  nor  will  it  be  practicable  for  the  members  of  my  staff  to 
be  present. 

With  the  highest  appreciation  of  the  compliment  paid  to  myself  and  staff, 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,*  gentlemen, 

Your  very  obedient  servant, 

WINFIELD  S.  HANCOCK,  Major- General,  U.  S.  A. 

To  MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R..  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD, 

Committee  of  Invitations,  &c.,  Concord,  Mass. 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA,  GOVERNOR'S  OFFICE, 
RICHMOND,  April  15,  1875. 

SIR,  —  Official  engagements  will  prevent  me  from  uniting  with  you  on  ihe 
1 9th  inst.,  in  celebrating  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  opening  of 
the  Revolutionary  War. 

As  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  republic  approaches, 
it  is  my  devout  hope  —  and  it  is,  undoubtedly,  the  ardent  aspiration  of  the 
Southern  people  —  that  the  patriotism  of  our  great  ancestors  shall  be  re 
awakened,  that  sectional  animosities  shall  disappear  forever,  that  the  last 
of  the  Federal  statutes  which  prejudice  or  impair  the  full  co-equality  of  the 
states  shall  be  swept  from  existence,  and  that  the  original  purity  and 
simplicity  of  the  government  shall-  return  with  real  peace,  prosperity,  and 
fraternity  to  every  section.  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

JAMES  L.  KEMPER. 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  Esq.,  Sec.  Com.  of  Arrangements,  Concord,  Mass. 


I5O  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  March  20,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  gratefully  acknowledge  your  invitation  to  be  present  as 
the  guest  of  the  inhabitants  of  Concord  on  the  igth  of  April  next,  on  the 
occasion  of  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the 
Revolutionary  War.  I  am  sincerely  sorry  that  engagements  indispensable 
will  prevent  me  from  having  the  pleasure  of  being  present  on  that  great 
interesting  occasion. 

I  think  that  no  American  whose  heart  beats  time  to  that  noblest  music 
of  resistance  to  tyranny,  and  of  liberty  under  law,  can  fail  to  feel  proud 
emotions  as  he  looks  back  over  one  hundred  years  to  that  great  day,  and 
measures  the  ever  renewed  and  beneficent  harvest  of  progress  for  our 
country  and  our  race,  that  has  ripened  from  the  blood  of  martyrs  shed  on 
that  day.  Civil  liberty,  tolerance  of  religious  opinion,  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  order,  equal  rights  under  the  reign  of  republican  law, 
have,  as  it  seems  to  me,  all  been  touched,  and  warmed  into  stronger  life,  by 
the  fires  kindled  on  that  single  field.  Well,  then,  may  the  inhabitants  of 
your  ancient  town  celebrate  with  pride  and  circumstance  the  century  of 
results  flowing  from  the  conflict  of  the  first  battle-field  of  the  republic.  But 
not  they  alone  :  the  nation  itself,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  shores  of  the 
tranquil  ocean,  should  take  up  your  rejoicings,  and  hold  high  festival  every 
where,  as  a  memorial  of  the  men  who  laid  the  firm  foundations  of  our  great 
republic. 

From  my  heart  I  say,  All  hail !  Very  sincerely  yours, 

GEO.  F.  EDMUNDS. 

THE  HONS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEORGE  HEYWOOD, 

Committee  of  Invitation  &•»<:.,  Concord,  Mass. 


HARTFORD,  CONN.,  March  31,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Your  favor,  covering  an  invitation  to  attend  the  centennial 
anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  is  at  hand. 

I  beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks,  and  regret  that  my  engagements  absolutely 
forbid  my  acceptance. 

I  have  no  doubt  but  a  meeting  such  as  Concord  will  have,  upon  an  occa 
sion  so  interesting,  may  be  productive  of  good  all  over  the  Union,  tending 
to  bring  back  the  era  of  good  feeling  and  brotherly  confidence  and  affec 
tion,  which  characterized  our  ancestors  when  Massachusetts  and  Virginia, 
South  Carolina  and  Connecticut,  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defence  of 
the  principles  of  civil  liberty. 

May  your  celebration  inaugurate  anew  the  old  affection  ! 

Very  sincerely,  &c., 

WM.  W.  EATQN. 

MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  and  Others. 


LETTERS.  151 

INDIANAPOLIS,  IND.,  April  16,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  INVITATION,  —  Your  invitation  to 
attend  the  celebration  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Concord 
came  to  me  at  a  time  when  I  hoped  to  be  able  to  attend  ;  but  I  find  that  I 
cannot  do  so.  It  would  be  most  gratifying  to  meet  with  the  descendants  of 
the  patriots  who  first  openly,  in  arms,  resisted  oppression,  upon  the  very  spot 
illustrated  by  their  heroism,  to  commemorate  their  deeds  by  joining  in  the 
inauguration  of  a  monument. 

Looking  backward  to  the  few  hardy  and  daring  men  who  set  the  example 
to  the  people  of  the  colonies,  of  resistance  by  force  to  oppression,  we  can, 
better  than  their  contemporaries,  appreciate  the  importance  of  their  efforts. 
Some  one  must  needs  begin  the  struggle  which  was  to  end  in  revolution  and 
desolating  war  ;  some  one  must  strike  the  first  blow  ;  some  one  must  sound 
the  note  that  was  to  waken  the  American  people  to  arms  ;  and  it  was  set 
apart  by  Providence  that  the  people  of  Concord  should  do  these  illustrious 
deeds. 

They  were  well  done.  The  great  procession  of  events  that  is  still  moving 
on  dates  back  to  that  day  and  those  men,  as  the  beginning  of  our  separate 
existence  as  a  nation.  Hoping,  that,  for  ages  and  ages,  a  free  and  united 
people  may  yet  meet  to  celebrate  the  deeds  of  the  men  of  Concord, 

I  remain  yours  truly, 

JOHN  COBURN. 


WOONSOCKET,  R.I.,  April  9,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Please  accept  my  thanks  for  the  cordial  invitation  to  join 
the  inhabitants  of  Concord  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the 
opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War  on  the  i9th  inst., —  an  event  which  has 
inspired  so  many  hearts  to  heroic  efforts  for  liberty  the  world  over. 

I  hope  to  make  my  arrangements  so  as  to  be  present,  and  join  the  citizens 
of  Concord  on  the  hallowed  occasion. 

Witb  high  esteem,  gratefully  yours, 

L.  W.  BALLOU. 

To  MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD,  Committee. 


GLOUCESTER,  MASS.,  April  10,  1875. 

DEAR  SIRS,  —  I  have  received,  through  you,  an  invitation  from  the  inhab 
itants  of  the  town  of  Concord  to  join  with  them  on  the  nineteenth  day  of 
April,  1875,  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  assure  you  I  highly  appreciate  your  kindness,  and 
shall  be  with  you  on  that  occasion,  if  within  my  power  to  do  so.  The  im 
portance  of  the  event  you  are  to  celebrate  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated, 
nor  the  actors  in  it  hold  too  high  a  place  in  our  affections.  The  principles 


152  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

they  fought  to  establish  and  vindicate  were  then,  are  now,  and  will  remain, 
the  true  basis  of  all  free  governments,  —  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
laws,  the  greatest  personal  liberty  compatible  with  individual  security,  and 
local  self-government.  This  is  the  foundation  upon  which  they  built  the 
state.  May  we  be  as  ready  to  maintain,  at  every  hazard,  the  government 
upon  that  foundation,  as  they  were  to  establish  it.  I  am,  with  great  respect 
for  your  inhabitants  and  their  committee, 

Truly  their  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  P.  THOMPSON. 

HONS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD, 

Committee,  Concord,  Mass. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  April  9,  1875. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  confess  to  great  remissness  of  duty,  as  well  as  a  lack 
of  due  courtesy,  in  delaying  to  answer  the  kind  invitation  of  the  committee  to 
be  present  at  the  celebration  in  Concord  on  the  approaching  igth  of  April. 

I  have  been  waiting  to  see  if  I  could  not  make  it  consistent  with  duties 
and  engagements  elsewhere  to  accept  the  honor  so  kindly  tendered  me. 
But  I  cannot  see  my  way  clear  to  do  so ;  and,  to  relieve  the  suspense,  I 
am  obliged  reluctantly  to  decline,  which,  in  view  of  the  splendid  promise  of 
a  celebration  of  unparalleled  interest  upon  a  spot  of  such  historic  fame,  I 
cannot  do,  without  repeating  with  how  much  regret  I  do  it. 

Very  truly  and  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

EMORY  WASHBURN. 

SAMUEL  HOAR,  ESQ.,  Secretary,  &c. 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  April  9,  1875. 

MY  DEAR  SIRS,  —  I  regret  I  cannot  be  present  at  the  centennial  anni 
versary  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  and  Concord.  The  occasion  has  every 
element  of  a  national  festival. 

The  encounter  was  not  accidental,  but  the  result  of  the  principles  and 
character  of  the  people,  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation.  It  was 
as  much  the  flowering-out  of  a  succession  of  ages  as  the  Iliad  of  Homer,  or 
the  Cologne  Cathedral.  It  might  have  happened  in  other  villages  in  New 
England  ;  but  it  could  have  happened  only  in  a  New-England  country  town. 

It  is  said,  that,  when  the  Romans  invaded  Germany,  an  aged  matron  met 
them  with  the  command,  "  Go  back  !  "  The  word  of  command  given  on  the 
hillock  in  Concord  marks  the  moment  when  the  measures  of  persecution 
and  tyranny,  devised  under  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts,  began  to  recede  ; 
and  the  cause,  which  had  been  lost  in  the  mother-country  by  Hampden  and 
Cromwell,  entered  upon  that  career  of  success  which  was  to  help  the  mother- 
country  itself  to  better  institutions,  and  teach  the  true  art  of  colonization  to 
the  world. 

Yours  most  truly, 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

HON.  E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR,  and  Other  Members  of  the  Committee  of  Invitations. 


LETTERS.  153 

BOSTON,  April  12,  1871;. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  For  the  cordial  invitation  to  me,  in  behalf  of  the  citizens 
of  Concord,  "to  be  present  as  their  guest  on  the  igth  of  this  month,  and  to 
join  with  them  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  opening  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,"  I  return  my  sincere  thanks  to  them  and  to  your 
selves.  Circumstances,  however,  will  prevent  my  attendance. 

The  event  to  be  commemorated,  though  only  a  local  skirmish,  bore  such  a 
relation  to  the  seven-years'  struggle  for  American  independence  as  will  for 
ever  invest  it  with  historical  interest  and  importance.  Probably  it  was  not 
given  to  any  of  those  who  participated  in  it  to  foresee  what  would  be  the 
consequences,  beyond  the  peril  of  the  hour,  and  the  liability  to  seal  with 
their  blood  their  resistance  to  tyrannical  dominion  ;  but,  with  them,  sufficient 
unto  the  day  was  failure  or  success,  obscurity  or  renown.  They  were  not 
battling  for  fame,  but  for  freedom  ;  and  whether  their  patriotic  uprising 
should  afterward  be  deemed  to  possess  only  a  local  significance,  or  whether 
it  should  prove  (as  it  did)  what  the  early  dawn  is  to  the  coming  day,  they 
knew  not  and  cared  not.  One  purpose,  at  least,  animated  their  breasts : 
it  was  to  be  enrolled  among 

"  Men  who  their  duties  know, 
But  know  thair  rights,  and,  knowing,  dare  maintain, 

Prevent  the  long-aimed  blow, 
And  crush  the  tyrant  while  they  rend  the  chain." 

There  are,  indeed,  various  methods  of  assailing  oppression,  and  main 
taining  the  cause  of  liberty.  As  an  advocate  of  peace,  in  a  very  radical 
sense,  it  would  not  be  consistent  for  me  to  glory  in  the  shedding  of  human 
blood,  however  desirable  the  end  in  view ;  yet  in  every  conflict  (however 
sanguinary)  between  the  oppressors  and  the  oppressed,  —  force  against  force, 
—  all  my  sympathies,  hopes,  and  best  wishes  have  been,  and  will  continue  to 
be,  with  the  down-trodden  side.  Men  cannot  exceed  their  highest  convic 
tions  of  duty  j  and  if,  in  reducing  them  to  practice,  —  though  there  may  be 
a  higher  plane  of  action  not  yet  attained,  and  nobler  instrumentalities  to  be 
used,  —  there  is  shown  a  readiness  to  confront  death  itself  in  the  service  of 
freedom,  they  will  be  sure  to  have  their  self-sacrificing  spirit  crowned  with 
respect  and  honor  by  mankind. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  celebrate  the  deeds  of  such,  and  to  be  proud  of 
them  as  ancestors.  To  make  the  occasion  worthy  of  us,  there  should  be 
drawn  from  it  an  admonitory  lesson  to  chasten  our  exultation,  —  lessons  of 
justice  not  yet  enforced,  of  equal  rights  still  denied,  of  national  unity  not 
yet  attained.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  still  remains  to  be  carried 
out  in  its  fundamental  principles  and  "  self-evident  truths."  True,  the 
atrocious  system  of  chattel  slavery  has  been  abolished,  and  its  victims 
nominally  admitted  to  citizenship  ;  but  they  still  need  to  have  their  rights 
protected,  and  to  be  put  in  possession  of  all  those  privileges  and  immunities 


154  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

which  are  accorded  even  to  aliens  and  foreigners  on  our  soil.  Moreover,  in 
persistently  denying  to  one  half  of  our  population  (solely  on  the  ground  of 
sex)  all  political  power,  all  representation  in  legislative  and  municipal  assem 
blies,  all  voice  in  the  enactment  and  administration  of  the  laws,  and  classify 
ing  them  in  an  opprobrious  manner,  we  are  trampling  under  foot  our 
own  heaven-attested  declaration,  that  "  governments  derive  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed,"  and,  in  imitation  of  the  mother-country 
under  George  the  Third,  imposing  taxation,  but  denying  the  right  of  repre 
sentation.  This  great  injustice  must  be  removed. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON. 

MESSRS.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD, 

Committee  of  Invitation. 

NEW  YORK,  April  3,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  regret  extremely  that  inexorable  engagements  will  pre 
vent  me  from  accepting  the  invitation  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Con 
cord  "  to  join  with  them  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the 
opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War." 

My  personal  associations  from  early  childhood,  with  this  ancient  town, 
and  my  familiar  acquaintance  ever  since,  with  some  of  its  distinguished 
inhabitants,  would  increase  the  interest  of  the  approaching  celebration  to 
me,  as  they  do  my  regret  at  not  being  able  to  take  part  in  it. 

With  profound  thanks  to  the  town  for  the  honor  it  has  done  me  by  the 
invitation,  I  am,  gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  M.  EVARTS. 
To  THE  COMMITTEE. 

FARMINGTON  AVENUE,  HARTFORD,  March  6. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  offer  my  thanks  to  the  citizens  of  Concord  for  their 
courteous  invitation,  and  shall  be  glad  indeed  to  be  present  on  the  igth  of 
April,  and  assist  in  laying  the  last  stone  of  the  basement  story  ot  American 
history.  Very  truly  yours, 

SAML  L.  CLEMENS. 

To  HON.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  ESQ.,  GEO.  HEYWOOD,  ESQ., 

Committee,  &c. 

PHILADELPHIA,  April  3,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Your  note  conveying  the  invitation  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town  of  Concord,  Massachusetts,  to  be  present  with  them  as  their  guest 
on  the  iQth  of  April  next,  and  to  join  with  them  in  celebrating  the  centen 
nial  anniversary  of  the  memorable  and  momentous  event  of  which  their 
town  was  the  scene  on  the  19111  of  April,  1775,  has  been  received,  and, 
appreciating  the  high  compliment  thus  rendered,  I  thank  you,  and  those 
whom  you  represent,  and  gratefully  accept  the  invitation. 


LETTERS.  155 

Regarding  the  day  to  be  commemorated  as  a  decisive  epoch  in  the  history 
of  liberty  in  the  American  world,  its  celebration  can  hardly  fail  to  be  pro 
ductive  of  the  best  results  in  recalling  to  us  of  the  present  generation  the 
sound  principles  of  the  great  men  of  that  day,  their  firm  adherence  to  prin 
ciple,  even  to  the  sacrifice  of  property  and  life,  and  the  virtue  and  wisdom  of 
the  people  who  chose  as  their  leaders,  and  sent  to  their  assemblies  and  con 
gresses,  the  ablest  and  best  men  of  their  several  communities.  What  hap 
pened  at  Lexington  and  Concord,  and  all  along  the  road  from  Concord  back 
to  Charlestown  in  the  month  of  April  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  not  an  act 
of  aggression  against  the  British  crown,  but  an  act  of  defence  of  the  con 
stitutional  rights  symbolized  by  that  crown,  and  of  rights  which  were  there 
after  embodied  in  the  written  laws  of  the  United  States.  Concord  and  Lex 
ington  were  the  best  logical  results  of  the  long  resistance  of  Boston  and 
Massachusetts  to  "  general  warrants,"  to  taxes  laid  without  the  consent  of 
the  colonists,  to  the  invasion  of  the  rights  of  property  and  the  sanctity  of  the 
domicile,  and  to  the  many  other  usurpations  of  a  parliament  in  which  the 
colonies  had  no  representation,  accompanied  as  these  infringements  of  natural 
and  constitutional  rights  were  accompanied  by  an  obstinate  purpose  on  the 
part  of  the  advisers  of  the  British  crown,  to  establish  them  as  law  in  the  colonies 
by  armed  force.  Thus  were  matters  of  vital  principle  upheld  by  the  men  of 
that  day  •  and  this  is  one  of  the  lessons  to  be  revived  by  the  coming  celebra 
tion.  Another  is,  that  the  American  people  of  1775  and  1776,  arid  for  a 
generation  following,  had  the  virtue  to  choose  for  their  representatives  the 
men  who  best  understood  those  principles,  who  would  most  conscientiously 
adhere  to  them,  and  to  whom  they  could  most  safely  intrust  their  highest 
interests.  The  review  of  the  past,  which  the  centennial  celebration  of  Con 
cord  and  Lexington  will  bring  to  us  all,  may  also  bring  with  it  renewed  and 
strengthened  fidelity  to  the  principles  and  virtues  of  our  fathers.  This,  too, 
let  us  hope,  will  be  among  the  best  fruits  of  the  centennial  commemoration 
of  that  greatest  political  event  in  the  history  of  mankind,  which  followed 
on  the  Fourth  of  July  in  the  year  succeeding  Lexington  and  Concord,  to 
the  promotion  and  acceleration  of  which  event  the  illustrious  men  of  those 
neighborhoods  devoted  their  fortunes  and  their  lives,  conspicuous  amongst 
whom  were,  as  I  believe,  your  own  immediate  ancestors,  as  well  as  Warren 
and  Revere  and  Dawes  and  the  Adamses  and  Hancock. 

Again  thanking  you  for  the  privilege  of  accepting  the  invitation  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Concord  to  unite  with  them  in  celebrating  the 
centennial  of  so  memorable  an  event, 

I  am  very  truly  your  obedient  servant, 

GEO.  W.  CHILDS. 

HON.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  ESQ.,  GEO.  HEYWOOD,  ESQ., 

Committee. 


156  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL 

CHICOPEE,  MASS.,  April  12,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  am  in  receipt  of  the  kind  invitation  extended  to  me  by 
the  citizens  of  Concord,  Mass.,  to  be  present  as  their  guest,  and  to  join 
with  them  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  on  the  iQth  inst,  for 
which  I  desire  to  extend  my  sincere  thanks. 

I  had  hoped  that  my  business  engagements  would  admit  of  my  accepting 
the  invitation,  but  find  it  is  not  practicable. 

I  congratulate  your  committee  in  having  secured  in  the  "  Minute  Man," 
so  fine  a  work  of  art  in  commemoration  of  the  first  who  fell  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  War.  It  is  unquestionably  the  finest  single  statue  ever  erected  in 
our  Commonwealth.  Yours  very  truly, 

A.  C.  WOODWORTH, 
Agent  Ames  Manufacturing  Co. 
HON.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD. 

FLORENCE,  ITALY,  March  6,  1875. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  Although  my  studies  in  Florence  will  render  it  impossible 
for  me  to  be  present  at  the  celebration  of  the  igth  of  April,  I  would  thank 
you  most  sincerely  for  the  compliment  you  have  shown  me  through  your 
invitation. 

To  the  town  which  I  am  proud  to  call  my  home,  I  must  ever  feel  most 
deeply  indebted  ;  and  I  would  express  my  grateful  sense  of  the  honor  con 
ferred  on  so  inexperienced  a  man,  by  the  confidence  implied  in  the  commis 
sion  for  a  statue  which  is  to  commemorate  so  important  an  event. 

If,  by  persevering  in  my  profession,  I  am  ever  enabled  to  accomplish  any 
thing  worthy  of  my  citizenship,  I  shall  owe  my  gratitude  to  my  friends  at 
home  for  the  encouragement  they  have  so  early  and  generously  extended  to 
me. 

Thanking  you  again  for  your  courteous  remembrance  of  me, 

I  am,  gentlemen,  most  respectfully  and  obediently, 

DANIEL  C.  FRENCH. 

HON.  E.  R.  HOAR,  R.  W.  EMERSON,  GEO.  HEYWOOD, 

Committee  of  Invitation* 


THE  BALL. 


THE    BALL. 


MANY  of  our  guests  remained  to  join  in  the  festivities  of  the 
evening.  Those  who  were  present  will  appreciate  our  feeling,  that 
no  mere  words  can  adequately  portray  the  decorations,  the  dresses, 
the  music,  the  enthusiasm,  that  made  the  grand  ball  so  marked  a 
success ;  but  the  account  of  Concord's  great  centennial  celebration 
would  be  deemed  to  be  incomplete,  if  it  did  not  contain  at  least  an 
attempt  to  preserve  some  of  the  bright  colors  of  that  happy  occasion. 

The  following  gentlemen  composed  the  Ball  Committee  :  — 

Andrew  J.  Harlow,  Henry  J.  Walcott,  H.  H.  Buttrick,  Richard  F. 
Barrett,  Sidney  J.  Barrett,  James  D.  Wright,  Samuel  W.  Brown, 
Samuel  Hoar,  Charles  D.  Tuttle,  Joseph  D.  Brown,  George  P.  How, 
James  B.  Wood. 

Andrew  J.  Harlow  was  chosen  manager,  with 

Henry  J.  Walcott,  Henry  J.  Hosmer,  George  P.  How,  James  C. 
Melvin,  Joseph  D.  Brown,  Richard  F.  Barrett,  Samuel  Hoar,  and 
William  Wheeler,  as  assistants,  and 

George  M.  Brooks,  Richard  Barrett,  George  Heywood,  Reuben  N. 
Rice,  John  S.  Keyes,  William  W.  Wilde,  and  George  Keyes,  to  act  as 
reception  committee. 

The  Middlesex  Agricultural  Society  generously  permitted  the  com 
mittee  to  use  their  hall,  situated  on  the  Fair  Grounds,  on  the  bank  of 
the  Sudbury  River,  west  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  Station.  This 
building  has  an  upper  and  lower  hall,  and  several  ante-rooms,  which 
were  heated  for  the  occasion  by  a  furnace,  and  lighted  by  gas. 

The  lower  hall,  used  by  the  society  for  its  annual  exhibition  of  fruits 
and  flowers,  was  decorated  with  great  skill  by  Messrs.  Lamprell  and 
Marble  of  Boston.  The  entrance  was  through  an  arch,  on  the  face 
of  which  was  inscribed,  "  1775,  April  iQth,  1875  ;"  and  on  each  side 
were  festoons  of  bunting,  and  flags  of  all  nations,  interspersed  with 
shields.  The  hall,  which  is  not  finished  or  plastered,  was  thereby 
better  fitted  for  the  art  of  the  decorator,  who  had  so  transformed  it, 
that  it  was  fairly  ablaze  with  color.  The  ceiling  was  completely  hidden 


I6O  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

by  large  flags,  mostly  those  of  the  republics  of  the  world,  appropriately 
contrasted.  The  walls  were  curtained  with  festoons  and  drapery  of 
flags  of  all  nations,  with  naval  signals  and  bunting.  At  intervals 
were  placed  trophies  of  sabre-blades,  arranged  in  the  form  of  stars, 
on  a  blue  ground  ;  also  shields,  representing  the  various  seasons, 
and  glories  of  American  flags  on  staves  tipped  with  gold.  The  floor 
was  carpeted  with  white  drilling,  the  effect  of  which  more  than  coun 
teracted  the  light-absorbing  quality  of  the  bunting. 

The  pillars  through  the  centre  of  the  hall  were  wreathed  and 
draped  with  trophies  of  flags,  and  festoons  and  rosettes  of  bunting. 
Long  streamers  were  stretched  from  pillar  to  pillar,  and  ribbons  of  red, 
white  and  blue  bunting  were  looped  and  festooned  along  the  cornices. 
Muskets,  cutlasses,  swords,  pistols,  and  bayonets,  were  grouped  on  the 
pillars,  or  hung  against  the  walls,  in  the  forms  of  stars,  shields,  and 
sunbursts,  and  by  their  brilliancy  relieved  the  almost  monotonous 
beauty  of  the  flags. 

At  each  end  of  the  hall  was  placed  a  platform  for  the  musicians  ; 
and  perhaps  the  most  noticeable  feature  of  the  decorations  was  at  the 
westerly  end,  the  head  of  the  hall,  behind  the  grand  orchestra.  This 
was  a  device  representing  a  globe  resting  on  the  shield  of  the  United 
States,  surmounted  by  an  eagle  holding  in  his  beak  a  wreath  of  laurel 
and  olive,  and  flanked  on  each  side  by  American  flags,  and  sun-bursts 
of  muskets  on  a  blue  ground  spangled  with  stars.  A  fragrant  bank  of 
hothouse-plants  in  full  flower,  massed  together,  concealed  the  platform 
from  the  floor  to  its  edge. 

From  eight  until  after  ten  o'clock,  select  music  was  furnished  for 
the  promenade  concert  by  the  United  States  Marine  Band  of  Wash 
ington,  dressed  in  their  showy  uniforms  of  scarlet,  assisted  by  the 
Grand  Orchestra,  under  the  direction  of  D.  W.  Reeves  of  Providence. 

Dancing  began  at  half-past  ten  o'clock,  and  continued  until  sunrise. 

Prompted  by  the  spirit  of  the  occasion,  many  of  the  ladies  wore  the 
costumes  of  the  last  century.  Family  chests  were  ransacked,  and  the 
long-disused  dresses  of  great-grandmothers  were  brought  out.  Rich 
brocades,  long  trains,  puffed  petticoats,  torturing  high-heeled  slippers, 
powdered  hair  drawn  up  over  cushions,  high  ruffs,  with  now  and  then 
a  black  patch,  to  add,  by  contrast,  to  the  effect  of  a  beautiful  com 
plexion,  were  conspicuous  among  the  dancers,  and  presented  a  mass 
of  rich,  soft  color,  in  strong  and  agreeable  contrast  to  the  prevailing 
hues  of  the  decorations.  The  gentlemen,  for  the  most  part,  wore  the 
solemn  black  of  the  modern  evening  costume,  but  there  were  not 
wanting  uniforms  of  the  army  and  navy  to  add  to  the  variety  and 
brilliancy  of  the  picture. 


THE    BALL.  l6l 

Altogether,  the  scene  was  one  long  to  be  remembered  with  pride 
and  satisfaction,  a  fitting  termination  of  so  glorious  a  celebration. 
From  half-past  eleven  until  one  o'clock,  supper  was  served  in  the 
upper  hall  by  William  Tufts  of  Boston,  in  his  most  approved  manner. 
This,  the  dining-hall  of  the  society,  was  also  decorated  with  bunting, 
and  lighted  with  gas,  and  easily  accommodated  at  its  tables  the  large 
number  of  guests. 

The  charms  of  the  music,  and  the  fascination  of  dancing,  triumphed 
over  the  fatigues  attending  so  vast  a  celebration,  and  prolonged  the 
ball,  until,  as  the  last  dancers  went  homeward,  they  saw  the  sun 
rising. 

So  ended  the  celebration,  twenty-four  hours  after  the  booming  of 
cannon  had  announced  its  beginning. 


THE   LITERATURE 


OF 


THE   NINETEENTH    QF   APRIL 


And  underneath  is  written, 

In  letters  all  of  gold, 
How  valiantly  they  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

Lays  of  Ancient  Rome. 


•fc  «?  ••»    '•••«•  _j_-4- 

^^"  Cr>*+4ieti&<*£-y  *j/'   *• 


1!^^ 


-^jg£~«*y:<££ 


^&"  faraAjf  slJtrit) 
f<K3  ^^ 


^«^>^ 


/fc^  ^fe)  ^?^n^  fct&jfr  <****) 


1 


f*- 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE. 

[PREPARED  BY  JAMES  L.  WHITNEY'.] 


This  Month  remar[kable]  for  ye.  g*est  Events  taking  Pla[ce]  in  yc  pr[escnt]  Age. 

Entry  in  the  Diary  of  the  Reverend  William  Emerson,  April,  1775* 

1775- 

.  THE  materials  for  a  full  and  exact  history  of  the  events  of  this  time  can 
be  found  neither  in  contemporary  public  documents  nor  in  the  popular 
accounts  of  the  day. 

The  official  records  of  the  Second  Provincial  Congress,  which  met  at 
Cambridge,  Concord,  and  Watertown,  from  February  i  to  May  29,  have,  in 
great  part,  been  lost.  This  is  owing,  it  is  thought,  to  the  confusion  arising 
from  the  changes  of  the  place  of  meeting,  and  from  the  suddenness  of  the 
march  of  the  British  force  to  Concord.  Documents  of  importance  may 
have  been  purposely  destroyed,  lest  they  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  We  are  not,  however,  without  much  of  an  authentic  character.  This 
can  be  found  in  a  work  prepared  by  William  Lincoln,  and  published  by  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  in  1838.  The  Journals  of  the  First,  Second,  and 
Third  Provincial  Congress,  are  here  reprinted,  together  with  the  Journals 
of  the  Committee  of  Safety  and  of  the  Committee  of  Supplies.  The  last 
include  the  record  of  several  meetings  at  Concord  in  April,  with  the  ad 
dresses  to  the  people  of  Massachusetts  and  other  colonies. 

This  publication  contains  also  the  following :  — 

The  list  of  the  Provincials  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  on  the  Nine 
teenth  of  April. 

The  Circumstantial  Account  sent  by  General  Gage  to  Governor  Trumbull 
of  Connecticut. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  damages  done  on  the  line  of  march 
of  the  king's  troops,  and  copies  of  letters  written  after  the  attack. 

The  student  of  the  history  of  this  time  will  find  Force's  "  American 
Archives "  an  important  source  of  information,  the  statements  of  which 
should,  however,  be  confirmed  by  other  authorities.  This  is  a  documentary 

1  Acknowledgment  is  due  to  Mr.  Justin  Winsor  for  the  use  made  of  his  article  on  Centennial 
Reading  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


l66  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

history  of  the  colonies  to  1787,  and  contains,  besides  various  documents 
already  mentioned,  the  following :  — 

The  Instructions  of  General  Gage  to  Captain  Brown  and  Ensign  De 
Berniere1  [De  Berniere,  ?]  February  22,  1775,  ordering  sketches  to  be  made 
of  the  country  between  Boston  and  Worcester,  with  the  Narrative  of  De 
Berniere:  also,  various  political  pamphlets  which  appeared  in  America  and 
Great  Britain  at  this  time ;  the  proceedings  of  Parliament,  and  of  various 
legislative  bodies  in  America ;  extracts  from  public  and  private  letters ;  an 
account  of  the  events  which  followed  the  Nineteenth  of  April ;  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  conventions  of  the  people  in  the  counties  of  Massachusetts ;  and 
narratives  of  the  excursion  and  ravages  of  the  king's  troops,  with  the  depo 
sitions  taken  by  order  of  the  Provincial  Congress  ;  also,  the  following  :  — 

"  An  account  of  the  commencement  of  Hostilities  between  Great  Britain 
and  America,  in  the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts-Bay.  By  the  Reverend 
Mr.  William  Gordon  of  Roxbury,  in  a  Letter  to  a  Gentleman  in  England, 
dated  May  17,  1775  ;"  with  other  papers. 

Almon's  "  Remembrancer  "  was  established  about  this  time  at  London,  with 
a  view  of  gathering  together  important  political  papers,  American  and  British. 
To  this  collection  all  writers  upon  the  American  Revolution  have  been 
largely  indebted.  Almon  was  hostile  to  the  ministerial  party,  and  his  collec 
tion,  therefore,  includes  mostly  letters,  speeches,  and  publications  that  favor 
the  interests  of  the  colonists. 

Accounts  of  the  events  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April  appeared  first  in  news 
papers  and  broadsides.  According  to  Thomas's  "  History  of  Printing,"  in 
April,  1775,  there  were  five  newspapers  published  in  Boston.  Of  these,  two 
were  removed,  —  "The  Massachusetts  Spy"  to  Worcester,  just  before  the 
nineteenth,  and  "  The  Boston  Gazette "  to  Watertown.  Two  others  sus 
pended  publication.  There  were,  besides  these,  only  two  newspapers  in 
Massachusetts,  and  nine  in  New  England.  In  New  York  there  were  four 
(or,  as  it  is  now  believed,  only  three),  and  in  the  British  colonies,  now  com 
prised  in  the  United  States,  thirty-seven. 

"  The  Massachusetts  Spy  "  published  the  report  of  the  events  of  the  day  in 
its  first  issue  at  Worcester,  May  3.  The  accounts  in  the  "  Essex  Gazette,"  and 
in  "The  Salem  Gazette,  or  Newbury  and  Marblehead  Advertiser,"  appeared 
in  the  numbers  for  April  21,  25,  and  May  5.  These  last,  with  a  list  of  the 
killed  and  wounded,  and  a  funeral  elegy,  were  published  at  Salem,  1775,  in  a 
handbill,  entitled  "  Bloody  Butchery,  by  the  British  Troops ;  or  the  Runaway 
Fight  of  the  Regulars.  Being  the  Particulars  of  the  Victorious  Battle  fought 
at  and  near  Concord,  situated  Twenty  Miles  from  Boston,  in  the  Province  of  the 
Massachusetts-Bay,  between  Two  Thousand  Regular  Troops,  belonging  to  His 
Britannic  Majesty,  and  a  few  Hundred  Provincial  Troops,  belonging  to  the 

1  Called,  probably  incorrectly,  by  some  authorities,  Berniere.  Henry  De  Berniere  made  a  plan  of 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  which  was  engraved  and  published  in  "  The  Analectic  Magazine,"  February, 
1 818,  and  which  is  said  to  be  the  first  plan  that  appeared  in  an  American  engraving.  It  is  there 
represented  to  be  from  a  sketch  found  in  the  captured  baggage  of  a  British  officer  in  1775. 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE.         l6/ 

Province  of  Massachusetts-Bay,  which  lasted  from  sunrise  until  sunset,  on 
the  igth  of  April,  1775,  when  it  was  decided  greatly  in  favor  of  the  latter." 
Above  the  title  were  forty  coffins,  on  which  were  the  names  of  the  Americans 
who  were  then  reported  to  be  killed. 

The  Narrative  of  the  Reverend  William  Emerson,  who  was  a  spectator  of 
the  action  at  the  North  Bridge,  is  in  the  form  of  a  diary,  written  upon  blank 
leaves  inserted  in  an  almanac,  and  is  dated  April  19,  1775.  This  was  first 
printed  in  R.  W.  Emerson's  "  Historical  Discourse,"  1835,  at  the  second 
centennial  anniversary  of  the  incorporation  of  the  town  of  Concord.  This 
pamphlet  was  republished  in  1875.  A  heliotype  of  the  original  manuscript 
(now  in  the  possession  of  R.  W.  Emerson,  a  grandson  of  the  author)  is 
given  at  the  beginning  of  this  article.1 

During  the  week  after  the  battle,  the  depositions  of  citizens  of  Concord 
and  Lexington  were  taken  by  order  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  and  a  nar 
rative  was  prepared  by  a  committee.  These  were  printed  in  American  and 
English  newspapers,  and  were  sent  to  the  Continental  Congress,  to  every 
town  in  the  province,  and  to  Great  Britain.  They  were  published  subse 
quently  by  Isaiah  Thomas,  by  order  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  in  a  pam 
phlet,  with  the  title  "  Narrative  of  the  Excursion  and  Ravages  of  the  King's 
Troops  under  the  Command  of  Gen.  Gage,  on  the  Nineteenth  of  April, 
1775,  Together  with  the  Depositions  taken  by  order  of  Congress  to  sup 
port  the  Truth  of  it."  These  important  documents  have  been  frequently 
reprinted.  Most  of  the  original  manuscripts  are  in  the  Library  of  Harvard 
College,  where  also  can  be  found  manuscript  letters  of  Joseph  Warren,  Cam 
bridge,  April  27  and  May  16,  and  John  Dickinson,  April  29,  1775,  all  touch 
ing  upon  the  events  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April. 

The  letters  and  journals,  which  were  written  at  this  time,  add  much  to  our 
knowledge  of  events.  They  are  too  numerous  to  be  mentioned  in  detail. 
The  following  have  been  published  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society : 

A  Letter  from  Colonel  Paul  Revere  to  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Society.  This  is  dated  January  i,  1798,  and  gives  an  account  of  his  memora 
ble  ride.2 

A  Journal  kept  during  the  Time  y*  Boston  was  shut  up  in  1775-6.  By 
Timothy  Newell,  Esqr.,  one  of  the  Select  Men  of  the  Town.  This  begins 
April  ig.s 

Letters  of  John  Andrews,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  1772-1776.  Compiled  and 
edited  from  the  original  MSS.  by  Winthrop  Sargent.4 

Letters  of  David  Greene  and  Joseph  Greene,  Boston,  May  6  and  TO,  1775. 6 

Letter  of  Doctor  Isaac  Foster  (?),  April  18,  21,  1775.° 

1  Mr.  Emerson  states  in  his  Historical  Discourse  that  the  context  and  the  testimony  of  some  of  the 
surviving  veterans  incline  him  to  think  that  the  word  not  was  accidentally  omitted  [before  the  last 
word  (yt)  in  the  tenth  line  from  the  top  of  the  third  column  of  this  manuscript]. 

2  Collections,  Series  I.,  vol.  5.  4  Proceedings,  July,  1865. 

8  Collections,  Series  IV.,  vol  i.  5  Proceedings,  June,  1873. 

6  Proceedings,  April,  1870. 


l68  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Papers  in  regard  to  the  carrying  of  the  news  of  the  battle  to  England.1 
Also  other  documents  already  mentioned. 

The  manuscript  Diary  of  the  Reverend  Ezra  Stiles  of  Newport,  afterwards 
president  of  Yale  College,  contains  particulars  of  the  events  of  this  and  of 
the  subsequent  time.  It  gives  a  relation  of  Major  Pitcairn's  version 
of  the  beginning  of  the  firing.  This  Diary  is  in  the  Library  of  Yale  College. 
Letters  can  be  found,  also,  in  Niles's  "  Principles  and  Acts  of  the  Revolu 
tion,"  in  "  The  Detail  and  Conduct  of  the  American  War,"  published 
before  1780,  in  Dawson's  "Historical  Magazine,"  and  in  the  general  col 
lections  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this  article. 

"  The  Journal  of  the  Continental  Congress,"  and  "  The  Parliamentary 
Register,"  contain  the  proceedings  of  these  bodies  at  this  time.  "  The  Par 
liamentary  History  of  England,"  and  the  "Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords" 
and  the  "Journals  of  the  House  of  Commons,"  should  also  be  consulted. 

English  accounts  of  the  battle,  and  of  its  effects  upon  the  nation,  with  dis 
cussions  of  its  political  bearings,  can  be  found  in  the  English  papers  of  the 
time,  and  in  "The  Annual  Register"  for  1775.  In  this  work,  the  articles 
upon  the  American  Revolution  were  written  principally,  if  not  wholly,  by 
Edmund  Burke. 

Lord  Mahon  (Earl  Stanhope)  appends  to  the  account  of  the  battle,  in 
his  "  History  of  England,"  the  official  report  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Smith  to 
General  Gage,  also  a  letter  from  Edward  Gibbon  the  historian,  dated  May 

3T>  J775- 

John  Home,  who  was  afterwards  called  Home  Tooke,  and  became  cele 
brated  as  the  author  of  "  The  Diversions  of  Purley,"  was  brought  to  trial  in 
1777,  before  the  King's  Bench.  He  was  charged  with  libelling  the  king 
in  publishing  the  statement  that  the  Americans  were  inhumanly  murdered 
by  the  king's  troops  at  Lexington  and  Concord.  He  was  condemned  to 
imprisonment  for  twelve  months,  and  to  pay  a  fine  of  two  hundred  pounds. 
The  case  is  reported  at  length,  and  is  interesting  as  showing  the  state  of 
feeling  in  England.2 

Accounts  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April  were  published,  in  1776,  in  Lowe's 
and  in  George's  Almanacs ;  also  in  Stearns's  North  American  Almanac. 
The  first  two  were  written  by  the  Reverend  William  Gordon  of  Roxbury,  who 
made  use  of  the  material  in  his  "  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Establish 
ment  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America.  London,  1788." 

A  pamphlet  was  published  at  Boston,  in  1779,  containing  General  Gage's 
Instructions,  and  De  Berniere's  Report,  with  an  Account  of  the  Transactions 
of  the  British  Troops,  and  a  List  of  their  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 

At  Lexington,  on  the  first  anniversary,  the  Reverend  Jonas  Clark  delivered 
a  sermon,  which  was  published  in  1776,  and  reprinted  in  1875.  The  day  was 

1  Proceedings,  April,  1858. 
2  Rex  vs.  Home.  Cowper,  672.  —  Howell's  State  Trials,     xx.  651-802. 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE.         169 

celebrated  in  this  town  for  eight  successive  years,  1776-1783,  and  the  anni 
versary  sermons  were  printed.  They  can  be  found  in  the  Library  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Historical  Society. 

The  "  Brief  Narrative  of  the  Principal  Transactions  of  that  Day,"  which 
was  appended  to  Clark's  sermon,  was  republished  in  1875,  in  folio,  with  helio- 
types  of  four  engravings,  which  were  published  at  New  Haven  in  1775.  Of 
the  pictorial  representations  which  appeared  at  this  time,  these  are  especially 
worthy  of  mention.  They  are  described  as  "  neatly  engraven  on  copper  from 
original  paintings  taken  on  the  spot."  The  artists,  Earl,  a  portrait-painter, 
and  Amos  Doolittle,  an  engraver,  were  soldiers  in  the  New  Haven  com 
pany  that  set  out  for  Cambridge,  April  20.  One  of  the  plates  gives  a  view 
of  Concord,  with  the  ministerial  troops  destroying  the  stores  ;  another  (given 
in  reduced  size  in  this  volume),  the  battle  at  the  North  Bridge.  There  are 
views  also  of  the  attack  at  Lexington  and  of  the  retreat  of  the  British  troops. 
The  original  plates  were  twelve  by  eighteen  inches  in  size. 

There  is  a  view  of  Concord  in  1776,  in  "The  Massachusetts  Magazine," 
July,  1794. 

John  Boyle's  "  Eulogium  on  Major-General  Joseph  Warren,  by  a  Colum 
bian,"  Boston,  1781,  contains  a  poetical  description  of  the  battle.  Samuel 
Langdon,  President  of  Harvard  College,  in  a  sermon  preached  before  the 
Provincial  Congress  at  Watertown,  May  31,  1775,  alludes  to  the  events  of 
the  preceding  month.  This  sermon  was  published  in  1775,  anc^  republished 
in  J.  Wingate  Thornton's  "  Pulpit  of  the  American  Revolution." 

1800. 

The  preceding  works  include  most  of  the  contemporary  publications 
which  have  come  down  to  us.  From  1800  until  1825,  but  little  appeared, 
except  in  general  histories  and  in  biographies.  Among  these  are  Mrs. 
Mercy  Warren's  "  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress  and  Termination  of  the 
American  Revolution"  (1805),  James  Thacher's  "  Military  Journal  during 
the  American  Revolutionary  War"  (1823),  and  the  "Memoirs  of  Major- 
General  Heath"  (1798),  who,  late  in  the  day,  acted  as  commander  of  the 
Provincials. 

1825. 

In  1825,  the  semi-centennial  anniversary  was  celebrated  at  Concord, 
Edward  Everett  delivering  the  oration,  which  was  published  the  same  year. 
Accounts  of  the  proceedings  are  given  in  "  The  Concord  Gazette  and  Mid 
dlesex  Yeoman,"  and  in  other  newspapers.  The  same  year,  Elias  Phinney's 
"  History  of  the  Battle  at  Lexington"  was  published,  followed,  in  1827,  by  the 
Reverend  Doctor  Ezra  Ripley's  "  History  of  the  Fight  at  Concord  .  .  .  show 
ing  that  then  and  there  the  first  regular  and  forcible  Resistance  was  made  to 
the  British  Soldiery,  and  the  first  British  Blood  was  shed  by  armed  Ameri 
cans,  and  the  Revolutionary  War  thus  commenced."  The  title  indicates  the 


I/O  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

points  in  controversy  between  these  authors  and  the  two  towns.  These  were, 
whether  the  British  fire  was  first  returned  at  Lexington,  or  at  Concord. 
Ripley's  book  was  republished  in  1832,  and  Phinney's  in  1875.  It  was 
claimed  that  neither  account  gave  due  credit  to  Captain  Davis  and  his  men  ; 
and,  in  1835  and  1850,  Josiah  Adams,  in  an  address  and  in  a  letter,  detailed 
the  honorable  part  Acton  had  taken  in  the  events  of  the  day.  In  a  pam 
phlet  of  six  pages,  published  about  1835,  Rufus  Hosmer  of  Stow  reviews 
the  first  three  of  the  above.  The  three  works  by  Phinney,  Ripley,  and 
Adams,  contain  depositions  made  at  the  time  of  their  preparation  by  sur 
vivors  of  the  fight.  Happily  the  echo  of  this  controversy  had  quite  died 
away  before  the  coming  of  the  centennial  year. 

In  1835,  Shattuck's  "History  of  Concord"  was  published,  containing  a 
detailed  account  of  the  history  of  the  town  in  1775,  an<^  during  the  Revolu 
tion.  This  work,  which  has  become  quite  rare,  is  regarded  as  an  accurate, 
and  important  contribution  to  the  early  history  of  New  England. 

Lexington  celebrated  the  sixtieth  anniversary  in  1835.  Edward  Everett 
delivered  the  oration,  which  was  published  in  a  pamphlet  containing  an 
account  of  the  proceedings.  It  was  republished  in  1875.  This  oration,  and 
that  at  Concord  ten  years  before,  can  be  found  in  the  first  volume  of  Everett's 
"  Orations  and  Speeches." 

The  same  year,  Danvers  laid  the  corner-stone  of  a  monument  in  memory 
of  the  seven  citizens  of  the  town  who  were  killed  on  the  Nineteenth  of 
April.  Daniel  P.  King  delivered  an  address,  which  was  published. 

1850. 

On  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary,  there  was  a  union  celebration  at  Concord, 
by  the  towns  of  Concord,  Lexington,  Acton,  Lincoln,  Sudbury,  Bedford,  and 
Carlisle.  The  oration,  by  Robert  Rantoul,  junior,  was  published  the  same 
year,  with  an  Appendix  containing  an  account  of  the  proceedings  on  the 
occasion.  The  Concord  Free  Public  Library  has  preserved  in  a  scrap-book, 
prepared  by  William  W.  Wheildon,  newspaper  cuttings  giving  the  order  of 
exercises,  the  oration,  the  after-dinner  speeches  by  Everett,  Choate,  Palfrey, 
and  others  ;  also,  in  manuscript,  the  minutes  of  the  meetings  of  the  com 
mittee,  as  well  as  the  letters  received  from  the  invited  guests. 

The  parts  taken  by  Acton,  West  Cambridge,  Cambridge,  and  Lexington, 
have  also  been  commemorated  by  public  celebrations,  in  1851,  1864,  1870, 
and  1871.  The  addresses,  by  George  S.  Boutwell,  Samuel  A.  Smith, 
the  Reverend  Alexander  McKenzie,  and  George  B.  Loring,  have  been 
published.  John  Pierpont  was  the  author  of  the  poem  at  the  first-mentioned 
celebration.  It  is  not  contained  in  any  edition  of  his  works. 

In  1851  there  was  published,  in  a  pamphlet  of  forty-six  pages,  by  request 
of  the  town  of  Acton,  the  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  Massachusetts,  February  3,  1851,  by  James  Trask  Woodbury,  upon  the 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE.          I /I 

question  of  granting  two  thousand  dollars  to  aid  the  town  in  building  a 
monument  over  the  remains  of  Captain  Isaac  Davis,  Abner  Hosmer,  and 
James  Hayward. 

In  1852,  Josiah  Adams  published,  in  a  pamphlet  of  eight  pages,  a  "  Let 
ter  to  the  people  of  Acton,  relative  to  the  evidence  which  procured  the  grant 
for  the  Davis  monument" 

One  of  the  chapters  in  Edward  Everett's  "  Mount  Vernon  Papers,"  pub 
lished  in  1860,  is  entitled  "The  Nineteenth  of  April,  1775." 

"  Concord  Fight,"  a  poem  by  S.  R.  Bartlett,  and  "  The  Fight  at  Lexing 
ton,"  an  illustrated  ballad  by  Thomas  D.  English,  appeared  in  1860,  the 
latter  in  "  Harper's  New  Monthly  Magazine."  Charles  Hudson's  "  History 
of  Lexington"  was  published  in  1868.  More  than  one  hundred  pages  of 
this  work  are  devoted  to  the  events  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April. 

1875. 

In  regard  to  the  Centennial  Celebration,  but  little  need  be  added  to  the 
record  given  in  the  preceding  pages.  An  address  was  delivered  M;irch  30, 
before  the  people  of  Concord,  by  the  Reverend  Grindall  Reynolds.  This 
appeared  later  in  "The  Unitarian  Review  and  Religious  Magazine,"  and  as 
an  independent  pamphlet.  An  illustrated  article  by  Frederic  Hudson,  entitled 
"  The  Concord  Fight,"  was  published  in  "  Harper's  New  Monthly  Magazine," 
in  May.  The  Ode  at  the  Concord  Centennial,  by  James  Russell  Lowell,  was 
first  published  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  June,  1875. 

"Potter's  American  Monthly,"  April,  1875,  contains  an  account  of  Jona 
than  Harrington,  the  last  survivor  of  the  fight. 

Th^  proceedings  at  Lexington  were  published  by  order  of  the  town.  The 
oration,  by  Richard  H.  Dana,  junior,  has  been  separately  printed. 

The  Reverend  Henry  Westcott  delivered,  April  n,  18,  and  25,  three 
sermons  in  the  First  Congregational  Church  at  Lexington.  They  were 
published  as  *'  Lexington  Centennial  Sermons  "  the  same  year. 

"  The  New-England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,"  October,  1875, 
contains  the  orations  and  accounts  of  the  proceedings  at  Concord  and 
Lexington. 

The  Reports  for  1875  - 1876  of  the  town  officers  of  Concord  and 
Lexington  give  further  particulars  in  regard  to  the  two  celebrations. 

At  the  time  of  the  Centennial  Celebration,  statements  hitherto  unpub 
lished  related  the  part  taken  in  the  fight  by  Jonas  Brown  1  and  Amos  Barrett,2 
both  of  Concord.  The  former,  although  wounded  at  the  North  Bridge,  joined 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy  through  the  day.  He  enlisted  afterwards  to 
serve  through  the  war,  and  became  a  lieutenant. 

The  enterprise  of  the  present  day  is  strikingly  contrasted  with  the  past  in 
the  publicity  given  by  the  press  to  this  celebration;  the  Semi-Centennial 
having  received  only  the  notice  of  a  paragraph  in  most  of  the  Boston  papers. 

1  Lowell  Courier.  2  Cincinnati  Times. 


1/2  THE  CONCORD  CENTENNIAL. 

Of  the  innumerable  publications  issued  at  this  time,  —  pamphlets,  maga 
zines,  newspapers,  circulars,  photographs,  and  engravings,  —  much  has  been 
collected  by  the  Public  Libraries  of  Concord  and  Boston,  where,  also,  are  to 
be  preserved  the  original  manuscripts  of  the  orations,  poems,  and  corre 
spondence. 

GENERAL  WORKS. 

The  authorities  thus  far  mentioned  are  confined  mainly  to  the  Nineteenth 
of  April,  and  to  the  events  immediately  preceding  and  following.  Other 
more  comprehensive  works,  show  the  connection  of  the  events  of  this  day 
with  the  history  of  the  times.  Of  these,  Frothingham's  "History  of  the 
Siege  of  Boston,  and  of  the  Battles  of  Lexington,  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill," 
is  first  to  be  mentioned  for  its  thoroughness. 

The  Histories  of  the  United  States,  by  Hildreth  and  by  Bancroft,  "  The 
History  of  Massachusetts,"  by  Barry,  and  Dawson's  "  Battles  of  the  United 
States  by  Sea  and  Land,"  contain  chapters  upon  this  period.  Edward  E. 
Hale's  "  One  Hundred  Years  Ago  "  is  a  fresh  presentation  of  the  subject. 
Other  authorities  do  not  need  mention  here. 

Of  early  English  authorities,  Adolphus  and  Belsham  are  best  known. 
The  former  defends  the  British  ministry  ;  the  latter,  the  Americans.  "  The 
History  of  the  Origin,  Progress,  and  Termination  of  the  American  War,"  by 
C.  Stedman  (1794),  details  military  operations.  The  author  criticises  the 
movements  of  Howe,  Clinton,  and  Cornwallis,  under  whom  he  served. 
Andrews's  History  (1785)  should  also  be  consulted,  and  Aikin's  "Annals  of 
the  Reign  of  King  George  the  Third"  (1816).  Among  later  authorities  are 
Hughes's  "  History  of  England"  (1835),  Smyth's  chapters  on  the  American 
Revolution  in  his  "Lectures  on  Modern  History"  (1839),  Stanhope  (already 
mentioned),  and  Massey's  "  History  of  England  during  the  Reign  of  George 
the  Third  "(1858). 

The  Oxford  Prize  Essay,  1869,  by  John  Andrew  Doyle,  on  "The 
American  Colonies  previous  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  "  deserves 
especial  mention  in  this  place.  It  is  admirable  in  its  spirit,  and  masterly  in 
its  treatment. 

The  part  taken  in  the  fight  at  Concord  and  Lexington  by  the  British 
regiments  is  mentioned  in  the  historical  records  of  those  regiments,  which 
have  been  published  by  the  War  Department. 

The  lives  of  the  leaders  in  the  opening  scenes  of  the  Revolution  present 
vivid  pictures  of  the  times.  Such  are  the  biographies  of  Franklin  and 
Washington,  of  the  Adamses  and  Hancock,  of  Warren,  Putnam,  Gerry,  and 
Timothy  Pickering. 

The  last  mentioned  has  been  blamed  for  not  appearing  upon  the  scene 
of  action  with  the  Essex  regiment,  on  the  Nineteenth  of  April.  He  is 
defended  by  Swett,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  Defence  of  Pickering  against 
Bancroft,"  and  also  in  "  The  Life  of  Timothy  Pickering,"  by  his  son,  Octavius 
Pickering. 


THE  NINETEENTH  OF  APRIL  IN  LITERATURE. 

The  various  biographies  of*  George  the  Third  are  important  sources  of 
information  for  the  student  of  this  period,  as  well  as  the  speeches  and 
correspondence  of  Burke,  Lord  Chatham,  Fox,  and  Lord  North. 

The  views  of  the  best  French  and  German  authorities  can  be  found  in 
the  following :  — 

Chas  and  Lebrun.  "  Histoire  politique  et  philosophique  de  la  Revolution 
de  1'Amerique  septentrionale.  Paris,  1800." 

E.  R.  L.  Laboulaye.  "  Histoire  politique  des  Etats-Unis  .  .  .  1620-1789. 
Paris,  1855-1866." 

M.  C.   Sprengel.      "  Geschichte   der   Revolution   in   Amerika.      Speier, 

1785." 

K.  F.  Neumann.  "Geschichte  der  Vereinigten  Staaten  von  Amerika. 
Berlin,  1863-1866." 

Of  the  poetry  and  fiction  called  forth  by  the  events  of  the  Nineteenth  of 
April,  the  most  important  are  Longfellow's  "  Paul  Revere's  Ride,"  Haw 
thorne's  "  Septimius  Felton,"  and  the  familiar  Hymn  by  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson.  To  these  should  be  added  the  poems  by  John  G.  Whittier,  and 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

The  verses  on  the  "  Story  of  the  Battle  at  Concord,"  etc.,  by  "  Eb.  Stiles," 
written  March  15,  1795,  of  which  the  manuscript  is  in  the  Library  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  deserve  mention  only  on  account  of  their 
age  and  patriotic  fervor. 

In  Cooper's  "  Lionel  Lincoln,"  a  tale  of  the  American  Revolution,  two 
chapters  describe  the  advance  of  the  British  to  Concord,  and  their  retreat. 
This  story  has  been  dramatized  by  Stephen  E.  Glover,  in  "  The  Cradle  of 
Liberty,  or  Boston  in  1775." 

Hawthorne  makes  the  adventures  of  the  "  Grandfather's  Chair,"  which 
passed  from  one  distinguished  man  to  another  for  nearly  two  centuries,  tell 
the  story  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April  as  a  part  of  its  account  of  the  early 
history  of  this  country. 

As  this  volume  goes  to  press,  a  centennial  drama,  by  Doctor  J.  S.  Jones, 
is  being  represented  at  the  Boston  Museum.  It  is  entitled  "  Paul  Revere 
and  the  Sons  of  Liberty,"  and  its  scenes  include  the  battles  at  Concord, 
Lexington,  Bunker  Hill,  and  the  siege  and  evacuation  of  Boston. 


APPENDIX. 


(A.) 

LEXINGTON,  Nov.  12, 1873. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  The  cherished  desire  of  the  citizens  of  Lexington  to  celebrate  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  I9th  of  April,  1775,  assumed  a  tangible  form  at  our  annual 
meeting  on  the  4th  inst.,  when  the  undersigned  were  chosen  a  committee,  "to  take  such 
preliminary  steps  as  they  may  deem  expedient,  towards  preparing  for  a  centennial  celebra 
tion  of  the  iQth  of  April,  1775."  We  communicate  this  to  you  to  solicit  your  good  services 
in  awakening  a  popular  interest  among  the  people  of  your  town  ;  so  that,  before  any  specific 
arrangements  are  made,  you  may  be  enabled  to  participate  with  us  in  commemoration  of 
an  event  in  which  we  have  a  common  interest,  and  which  has  made  Concord  and  Lexington 
household  words,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  Europe.  Being  thus  connected,  we  trust 
you  will  unite  with  us  as  cordially  as  we  united  with  you  in  celebrating  the  seventy-fifth 
anniversary. 

We  hope  to  have  a  celebration  worthy  of  the  day,  when  we  shall  be  able  to  unveil  the 
statues  of  the  proscribed  patriots  Hancock  and  Adams  ;  so  that  the  statesman  and  the  soldier 
may  stand  forth  together  in  our  Memorial  Hall  as  equally  worthy  of  our  veneration  and 
gratitude. 

In  due  time  you  may  expect  a  more  direct  and  full  invitation  to  join  us  in  commemorat 
ing  the  valor  and  disinterested  patriotism  displayed  by  our  fathers  over  the  whole  field, 
from  Concord  North  Bridge  to  Charlestown  Neck. 

We  are,  gentlemen,  very  respectfully, 

Your  humble  servants, 

CHARLES  HUDSON,  \ 

M.  H.  MERRIAM,       >  Committee. 

R.  W.  REED,  ) 

To  THE  HON.  BOARD  OF  SELECTMEN  OF  CONCORD,  MASS. 


1/6  APPENDIX. 

(B.) 

CONCORD,  Jan.  12,  1874. 

GENTLEMEN, — Your  communication  of  the  I2th  November  last,  extending  an  invitation 
to  the  town  of  Concord  to  unite  with  you  in  celebrating  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  i pth  of  April,  1775,  was  duly  received,  and  we  owe  you  an  apology  for  not  replying 
earlier ;  but  we  have  delayed  doing  so,  thinking  we  might  have  a  town  meeting,  at  which  we 
could  bring  the  matter  before  the  town.  The  subject  of  a  celebration  on  that  day  has  been 
talked  of  among  some  of  our  prominent  men  for  several  months.  The  town  of  Concord, 
as  you  are  aware,  celebrated  the  fiftieth  and  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  day,  and  had 
proposed  to  have  a  good  centennial  celebration,  at  which  time  we  propose  to  dedicate  a 
statue  of  a  continental  minute-man,  to  be  erected  at  the  battle-ground.  A  committee  was 
chosen  at  the  annual  meeting  in  March,  1873,  to  procure  a  model  of  a  statue,  which  was 
accepted  at  the  November  meeting,  and  the  work  is  now  in  course  of  construction.  In  view 
of  the  action  of  the  town  before  receiving  your  communication,  and  knowing  the  desire  of 
our  citizens  to  celebrate  the  day  in  a  proper  manner,  we  feel  that  it  would  be  exceeding  our 
authority  to  speak  definitely  in  relation  to  your  invitation,  without  laying  the  subject  before 
the  town,  which  we  will  do  at  our  annual  meeting  in  March,  with  the  view  of  having  a  com 
mittee  appointed  to  confer  with  you  in  relation  to  a  joint  observance  of  the  day,  in  which 
we  certainly  have  a  common  interest. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

HENRY  F.  SMITH,        \ 

WILLIAM  W.  WILDE,  ?   Selectmen  of  Concord. 

JOHN  B.  MOORE, 

HON.  CHARLES  HUDSON,  M.  H.  MERRIAM,  R.  W.  REED, 

Committee,  Lexington. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
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0  S/ 


C1R.I 


LD  2]A-407n-ll,'63 
(E1602slO)476B 


University  of  California 

General  Library 

Berkeley 


